THE Pukekohe and Waiuku Times PUBLISHED TUESDAYS AND FRIDAYS. FRIDAY, AUGUST 29, 1913. MR PAYNE'S PLEDGE.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 2, Issue 123, 29 August 1913, Page 2

THE Pukekohe and Waiuku Times PUBLISHED TUESDAYS AND FRIDAYS. FRIDAY, AUGUST 29, 1913.

MR PAYNE'S PLEDGE.

"We nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice."

It is a little cut of our way, but as the Hon. Mr Massey represents this constituency in Parliament, the iz- | newed discussion about the pledges i made by Mr J. Payne, M.P., for ! Grey Lyr.n, is of district interest. i In the House on Wednesday night Mr ! Payne took the opportunity to revive I the subject cf a letter containing a j pledge lo vote against the Ward | Government which he sent ti the j present Prime Minister Eoon after being returned to Parliament. Mr ! Payne went en to stat2 that when |he went down to Wellington he i found that Mr Massey's "innuendos" I about extravagant borrowing were i without four.dation, and he then I considered that he was entitled to jgo back on hh "word of mouth." I He challenged any member en the j other side cf the House to produce j a single line showing that he had j pledged himself before the second 1 t allot to Euppo.t Mr Massey. Later „in the evening the Prime Minister sail that a little while ae;o the membsr for Grey Lynn had chalI lenged him to read the letter whicn Ihe had received from him about the ; ro-coniidenca motion. Ha proposed | row to read this letter. It was | dated January 11th, 1912, and was as follows: "Dear Mt Massey,—l only returned from holiday-making this morninp, and therefore have just received yours of January 6th. Heading your letter in line with Sir Joseph Ward's manifesto assembling Parliament for February 15th, I may say the™ will he no wavering on my part in voting the Government out on a no-:oi:lidancc motion. 1 shall use my butt endeavours tu a:c that there 13 no vacillation on the patt of other Labour members.™ (Signed) JOHN PAYNE." I

Mr Payne, amidst runnina laughter, said that be had already made his petition :lear. He again challenged the Prime Minister to produce a tingle line cf his in a newspaper teport to show that he had pledged hima;ll to Mr Massey on a nc-contidence motion before bis constituents. (Shouts of laughter). It was what a man was pledged to. do betore his constituents that he had to stand by. (Laughter .ind "Oh's.") That was the only thing, he repeated, tint a man was called upon lo stand by. After further remark?, Mr Payne chimed that at law this document would b2 held to te invalid ard illegal because it was ' without consideration." (Loud laughter). That was the position at liw, and he claimed it wai the -same morally. He acknowledged he had mate an agreement, but it was "without consideration." We have not referred to this subject in print before, but we do nut hesitate to say now that Mr Payne's memory is very faulty. At the time cf the election the present writer was associated with journalism in Auckland. He attended two of Mr Paynb's meetings and heard him describe Sit Joseph Ward's financial operations in most vitriolic language. Tt.ere ia no dobut at sll that from the public platform Mi Payne promised to vote against the Ward Government, although this may not have b:en included amongst the written "pledges" which Mr Payne dramatically landed to his chairman of committees to whom hs gave the "rignt nf recall" in tha event of ary of the pledges being broken. Mr Payne is on pretty safe ground in saying that no such promise was reported in the press. The fact of the matter was tlm the Auckland papers up to the time of the first ballot thought that John Payne had no chance of winning, and his utteranceo, since the dailies did rot take him seriously, were enly reported very ecaniily. That is how it cornea about that ro newspaper report cai now be produced showing the many wild things that Mr Payne really did say. But that he punlicly phdrfed himaflf to vo'.e Sir Joseph Ward out is beyond question in thi3 scribe's mind. H's denials—especially in the face of the l.ttsr he wrote to Mr Massey —are most amazing.