PRECEDENCE AND POLITICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 37, 9 March 1909, Page 4

PRECEDENCE AND POLITICS.

THE MEMBER TOR STKATFOKD REPUES. To the Editor. .sir,—My attention has been called t" a letter appearing in your Saturdays issue under the name of Mr. Joseph McCluggage, a .id as there appears to it. 1 a certain auiouut of misconception with regard to what actually took place in connection with the visit of the llou. A. W. Hogg to this district, I may, perhaps, be allowed to give my views upon I the matter. In the first place—and there u_ no ' gainsaying the fact—'Mr. Hogg > the Stratford district at the request o' the Stratford and Whangamumon.t County Councils and of the Stratford Borough Council, ilr. Hogg was good enough, too, to wire me prior to his visit and post me with regard to his itinerary. This being the case—and I think any uifbiasoed person will admit my contention to be correct—my place as member for the district was at the .Minister's, aide. ) The gentlemen who, apparently at the request of some of the Whangamomona settlers who were preparing a banquet for the Right Hon. the Premier and Mr. Hogg, took upon themselves the task of conveying ilr. Hogg to Whangamomona were evidently unaware of the courtecy that was due to the oliiee which I have the honor to hold. They therefore, oblivious of the fact that the main purpose of the honorable gentleman's visit was to enquire into the requirements of this district, thought that the interests of their party would be best served by endeavouring to force me into the background, forgetting at the same 'time the studied insult that was being offered to those electors who had placed me at the head of the poll in November last, to say nothing of the false position in which they were placing their friends and themselves. Possibly they imagined 1 would accept the insult lying down; and I may bo pardoned if I take this opportunity of informing tihem that such is not my nature. I will take insults from nobody, either privately as a citizen or publicly in my capacity as the representative of the people of this electorate. And I would further add that so long as I have the honor to hold this high and important office, so long will I endeavor to safeguard the rights and privileges pertaining to the same. The Liberal party will find—and they •may as well accept tihe situation at once—that in future, as in the past, whenever a Minister of the Crown honors my electorate with his presence, he will find me at his right hand, ready and willing to entry out on behalf of ■my constituents those duties that [ have been called upon to fulfil. —I am, etc., J. B. HINE. Toko, March Bth, 1809. .