A WORD FOR MB FARBIS.

Patea Mail, 9 August 1881, Page 3

A WORD FOR MB FARBIS.

The ingratitude which follows public service is shown by that scandalous question put in the House by Mr Hutchison, in asking whether Honi Pihama and Major Parris are partners in certain additional reserves awarded to Honi. Here is a public servant aged 66 years, who is known to have been pressed against his inclination to assist in the work of the West Coast Commission, and who has twice during that time asked to be relieved of that work, yet is now accused in Parliament of misusing his office to rob the colony, and secretly sharing the plunder I One feels pity for Mr Hutchison in making himself the medium of circulating so vile a calumny. His sense of honor cannot be delicate ; nor does it appear that he is doing to others as he would have others do to him. The question could have been put in a way to clear the public servant, without first proclaiming him a thief. A member who takes the other clumsy and cruel course of damning the character of an aged official in Parliament, by insinuating a scandalous charge, is not the kind of member to ornament an assembly of gentlemen. Mr Farris was specially chosen by those who knew him well to carry out the details of a delicate and complicated scheme of native settlement.' Mr Parris’s judgment and sagacity have been questioned by various critics, and we have had some sharp things to say of his policy ; but what person of honor and repute has stooped to the meanness of calling Mr Parris a swindler ? That is the accusation made in the House—mentioned just as a rumor, nothing more 1 Some think it a light matter to blast the character of a well-tried servant, because he happens to be continuing in the public service against his wish. It is a deplorable evil in politics that our best men receive scant credit fo integrity ; that politicians of honor and fair repute obtain no more consideration than those frothy pretenders who are

known to be corrupt. An hdnest character,is a man’s best possession, ami should piotcct him against that vile form ol attack which consists in repeating a calumny and then asking if it is true.