THOSE VOUCHERS. The Tactics of the Accusers.

Free Lance, Volume VI, Issue 268, 19 August 1905, Page 6

THOSE VOUCHERS. The Tactics of the Accusers.

IT is impossible either to admire or sympathise -with the tactics pursued by Messrs. Fisher and Taylor and their satellites this week with regard to the voucher question. Certainly, the meeting held in the Town Hall on Monday night, while the matter was sub judice, was a grossly indecent proceeding. The charges having been made and reiterated, and an enquiry by the Auditor-General having been ordered, it was incumbent upon Messrs. Fisher, Taylor, and Co. to await the result of the enquiry in respectful silence. Then, if the methods of the enquiry, or the finding of the Audi-tor-General, did not meet with their approval, it was open to them to raise Cain and stir up public feeling in any fashion they chose. • • • It is a recognised axiom of law that there should be no public comment on the merits of a suit once it has been entered upon, and newspapers are bound by severe penalties to observe this rule. The same law, however, does not bind Messrs. Fisher, Taylor, and Co., though this case is equally before a court, but, as a matter of honour and good taste, the responsibility Vrests upon them of doing nothing that will prejudice the case while it is sub judice. The meeting on Monday night was a declaration that Messrs. Fisher, Taylor, and Co. are not prepared to recognise such restraints. Whatever the issue of the Auditor-General's enquiry, they are determined to influence the popular mind in their own

favour, and the meeting in. the Town Hall was a bold and indefensible step towards that end. * « ♦ Such a meeting, influenced by an ex parte version of the facts, was grossly unfair to Mr. Seddon and his son. With a truer sense of honour, they have left the judgment on these charges to' the unprejudiced decision of the Auditor-General. It may be argued, and with much truth, that the meeting on Monday night, and the statements of Messrs. Fisher, Taylor, and Co., are not likely to bias the mind of the Auditor-General in any way. This is true enough. But another and greater consideration must not be lost sight of. Mr. Seddon and his son on the one hand, and Messrs. Fisher, Taylor, and Co. on the other, are arraigned before a higher tribunal even than the Court of the Attorney-General. Practically speaking, , they are arraigned at the bar of Public Opinion. Whatever view the people take of this question must influence the voting very considerably at the general election. * * • This being so, the meeting of Messrs. Fisher, Taylor, and Co in the Town Hall on Monday night was an indecent attempt to influence and inflame public opinion while these voucher charges were sub judice. Mr. Seddon and son made no such attempt to bias the public mind. It was sufficient for them that Parliament had set up a high and impartial Court to make careful and complete investigation, and they awaited the result in calm and silent confidence. It would have been more dignified and honourable on the part of their accusers if they had done the same. To take the platform m denunciation of the Premier and his son, and in violent reiteration of their charges a.t the very moment those charges were under investigation, implied no confidence in their own cause, and was an indefensible attempt to inflame and bias the judgment of the people. >