SIR GEORGE GREY AND THE PATEA £l0,000.

Patea Mail, 10 May 1881, Page 3

SIR GEORGE GREY AND THE PATEA £lo,ooo.

In addressing the Thames electors Sir George Grey “ First referred to a matter personal to himself, and which might show how their money went in this country. They must not think he was joking. He read them an extract from the Patea Mail of March 22nd, giving an account of a meeting on the preceding eA r ening, at which the Colonial Treasurer and Mr Sherwood were present. He believed the statement in the paper Avas quite true —there was an air of tiuth about it, and if any injustice was done, both reporters and speakers Avere to blame, as the latter had not contradicted it.” Sir George then read that portion of the proceedings at Patea where Major Atkinson took credit for obtaining everything in connection with Patea harbor, except the loan of £IO,OOO, in respect of Avhich he however claimed to have gKen great help. Sir George Grey characterises Major Atkinson’s action on that occasion as a “diabolical plot,” and said “ he left it to them to judge of such a transaction, that the Colonial Treasurer, who holds the place, so to speak, of Chancellor of the Exchequer of the Colony should suggest a diabolical

plot, that a person wanting to borrow money should threaten to oppose him (Sir George Grey) unless he bribed him with public money ? He asked the electors whether such an idea would enter any man’s head who did not well know that in such circumstances public money had been applied in that way ? He would wish to drop a dark curtain over such conduct. If they tried to corrupt public men, they not only injured their own character but that of the colony at large. Had such a thing been done by a British Chancellor of the Exchequer he would have been turned out of office and never permitted to show his face in Parliament again.