MR MASSEY AND SIR FOWLDS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2896, 15 September 1909, Page 30

MR MASSEY AND SIR FOWLDS.

CONTINUATION OF CONTROVERSY. (Fkom Our Own Correspondent.) AUCKLAND, September 9. The Leader of the Opposition has the quality of ttnacity, and never allows an opponent to sidle out of a dispute on a side issue. He has returned to the charge in his endeavour to pin down the Hon. George Fowlds to a definite point. "There are," said Mr Massey, "one or two points in Mr Fowlds's most recent interview on which I think it desirable that a little light should, fie thrown. First, with regard to the Chamberlain resolution, Mr Fowlde says he was absent from hib place when the resolution came on. Well, so much the worse for the hon. member and his constituents. I have, however, a clear recollection of a ropy of the motion being forwarded by Mr Seddon to myself early in the afternoon with the object of letting Opposition members know of the business which was intended to be tak.-n at 7.30. The j motion was very fully discussed, and i when the division was' taken 52 voted for and only 2 against, the two Noes being Messrs Bedford and Ell. Mr Fowlds says had he been prestnt he should have been found with Mr Duthie vigorously opposing the motion, but his offence consisted not in opposing this motion — every man has a right to his ooinion. — but in the cablagra'm which he foi warded to Mr Chamberlain's opponent, Sir Heniy Campbell-Bannerman, and which he evidently intended should be used for political purposes in England. Mr Duthie was quite within his rights in opposing the motion and in pairing against it. But Mr Duthie would scorn to go behind the Parliament of which he was a member ami cable an inaccurate message to Sir Hem\ Campbell-Bannerman. Anyway, what ;i spectacle to find Mr Fowlds trying to shelter behind Mr Duthie! I don't think it possible for anyone who knows the men to imap-ine Mr Duthie sheltering behind Mr Fowlds. The oablegiam was as follows : — ' Mr Seddou's Chamberlain lesolution was rushed through without notice at a Monday sitting. Manjr members were absent. Some opposed, others present spoke against or declined to vote.' This was the manner in which Mr Fowlds treated ; an expression of appreciation by the New Zealand Parliament of the services of the great Imperial statesman who raised the colonies to the position of partners in the Empire, and who, during his term of office, did more for real Imperial federa- ' tion than anyone who preceded him.

*'I venture to say that the tactics ol 1 Mt Fowlds in this matter and in many other respects will hardly commend themselves to the right-thinking people of this country. I was rather amused," continued Mr Massey, " when I noticed that in the same interview Mr Fowlds had been boasting of his knowledge of the world', and of world politics, and his extensive ■ study of economic problems. I suppose, it is owing to his extensive study of ' economic problems that he wants the ' exemption under the Land and Income Tax Act done away with, every poor man who owns an acre of land taxed therefor, and all taxes placed, as he would say, ■ upon ' land values.' I had come to the i conclusion that the only authority on " political economy Mr. Fowlds had ever ■ heard of was Henry George, bHt it seems 1 was mistaken. I can think of an occasion last session when Mr Fowlds dis-^ played his knowledge by informing the House that a ' drop in the price of wool simply means that wool kings have so ' much less money for investment, and who even in a bad year have more money than they can spend in the ordinary course of business/ and then went on to argue that the- drop in the price of wool did not seriously affect the condition of the ' people. I did nob "think there was a man in the House whose knowledge*,' or the want of it, would have allowed him to say anything of the sort." The veriest' tyro m political economics would have known ! better than commit himself to such a ! statement as that made by the Minister of Education, and which is on record m our Han&ard. But it seems to be true that Mr Fowlds has a great deal to learn, and, perhaps, equally important, a great deal to forget."