MR. TREGEAR'S SOCIALISM.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8153, 10 July 1906, Page 2

MR. TREGEAR'S SOCIALISM.

| PREMIER'S EBPLY TO EMPLOVERS' FEDERATION. EVER? DESIRABLE PRINCIPLE AFFIRMED. GOVERNMENT TAKES NO ACTION. TE2 PIIEBS ASSOCIATION. WBtiiiuaTON, July 9. The Promior, Mr Hall.Jones, lias wruten to the secretary of the New Zealand Employers' Federation acknowledging reoeipt of the letter of the 20th ult., asking chat Mr Tregear should be removed from his office as Secretary of Labor, on account of a letter ho had written to a friend in America expressing certain Socialistic views. The Premier, in reply, says that the letter referred to was a private one to a friend, that was not signed by Mr Tregear in his official capacity, and that Ihe supposed copy of the letter was not a true copy, sentences written by Mr Tregear having been omitted, and other sentences inserted. Mr Hall.Jones gives examples of this, and says that to wrest from the letter an attack on the New Zealand Employers' Federation is perverso and unwarranted. No accusation, concludes the Premier, or even inference hus hitherto reached the Government that Mr Tregear had failed in carrying out his j official duties with discretion and lm partiality, " I cannot concur in the principle you expound, that the Government has the right to interfere with the private expression of personal opinions held by its officers. UnJUr the circumstances, I do not consider it to be my duty to take the action you suggest."