The Sun. 42 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1928 A REST HOME FOR OLD M.P’S.

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 517, 21 November 1928, Page 8

The Sun. 42 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1928 A REST HOME FOR OLD M.P’S.

PRAISE, pride, excited interest, and all kinds of flattering attention have been bestowed on the veteran statesman, the lit. Hon. Sir Joseph Ward, for coming back as a challenger foi* the championship belt in the political arena. No reasonable person in the Dominion will begrudge him the joy and acclamation of liis present and prospective triumph, and even those who would deny him fulsome praise will at least be silent in recognition of the plain fact that, before the flushed conqueror is through with the test of party combatants, he will need all the sympathy that a genei’ous nation can spare. Political administrators may look forward to a battlefield rather than to a bed of roses.

While it is right in sentiment and sportsmanship to laud Sir Joseph Wai’d for an achievement at an age that would have confounded the Psalmist as well as confounding all the tipsters, the applauding people should not overlook the plight of other Parliamentary veterans, who retired before the electoral campaign in order to make way for ardent and vigoi-ous recruits. They are deserving of honest sympathy and generous consideration. It is not taking too much for granted to say-that the five legislative veterans who refrained from combat did so generally because they had every l’eason and the best of reasons for hoping that, after the political war was over and done with, they would be “translated to Another Place.” In other words they were justified in anticipating an eai’ly call to the Legislative Council and there rewarded with the tranquillity which hitherto has been looked upon both by legislatoi’s and the people as a simple, dignified reward for long and faithful service among the comparative rabble of representative professional politicians. Those luckless veterans represent five familiar names in Parliament, for many years:—the Hon. William Nosworthy, the Hon. David Buddo, Mr. T.- K. Sidey, Mr. T. W. Rhodes (best known as “Toby”), and that canny, loyal soul from Chalmers, Mr. James McColl Dickson. Their luck in retirement can only be described as “tough.” They have fallen between two rickety stools, neither having enough legs on which to stand alone. The Administration that ought to have rewarded them all with early appointment to the Legislative Coxuicil lias had wrenched out of its hands the privilege of calling the faithful servants of the country to the pleasant rest home for old legislators.

Each one of the five Parliamentary veterans may consider his own bad luck the worst case of undue hardship, but the plight of the Hon. W. Nosworthy seems to be the hardest. Exactly twenty years ago to-day Mr. Nosworthy was fii’st returned to Parliament as member for Ashburton, and, without a break, lie represented that electorate with a thoroughness sufficient to convince the electors that he was the right man for it in Parliament. And he was not merely a patient plodder in active politics or just one of the inarticulate political automatons in his party. ITc had his gx’eat years and period of distinction and, like Quisante “he had his moments.” For a lustrum he was Minister of Agriculture in the Massey Ministry; for another lie was Ministex" of Immigration, and did so well in bringing immigrants that, by the unemployed and the Labour Opposition, he was cui’sed “bell, book and candle.” In his own dolefully humorous way he did his duty. Then, for a glorious sixteen days in the Beil Ministry he was Minister of Finance, and used to smile inscrutably like the Sphinx when liis colleagues solemnly, with hat in hand, had to ask him for grants of State money. Greatest moment of all, lie was nominated as the only rival to Mr. Coates for the position of Prime Minister. Will the defeat of liis Government rob him of a knighthood and a cushioned, seat in the Upper House? Mr. Sidey first entered Parliament in 1901, and made liis electorate a pocket borough for seven-and-twenty years. Ouce only he was nearjy unseated, but only once. Must his reward be nothing more than a begrudged half-hour of saved daylight every summer day? The Hon. David Buddo lias been in every Parliament except one since 3893. He held portfolios in the Ward Ministry. Mr. “Toby” Rhodes lias been a dutiful, painstaking Parliamentarian for seventeen years. Mr. “McDickson” served for fourteen years like Jacob under that hard taskmaster Laban. There is scope for the next Administration to be magnanimous in its remembrance and rewards of “auld strugglers.”