CURRENT TOPICS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 63, 23 June 1910, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS

POST-PRANDIAL POLITICS. Dinners and smoke socials are very popular functions amongst the men-folk. There all meet as equals, and partaccording -to circumstances. There the local legislators and others are given an opportunity of listening to the sound of their own Voices —and other people's at intervals. Men, even temperance men, have been known to utter shockingly! unorthodox opinions at banquets and smoke concerts. At these functions controversial matters, such as party politics, are supposed to be ibarred. Our local member of Parliament, however, isn't to be bound by the conventions in this regard. When he talks polities it must be party politics. And whether they are (practical or not doesn't matter much, for it isn't an address to his constituents. On Tuesday evening Mr. Okey excelled himself. He criticised the legislation governing local bodies, and then got astride of that tired old steed the Land Bill, which was nearly ridden to death at the last elections. 'Mr. Okey is a battler for the man on the land, and for the man who wants to go on the land. The tproposals of the Government are not liberal enough for him, for on Tuesday evening he told the members of the New Plymouth Fire Brigade and their guests that in his opinion the man with a family ought to be supplied by the State with a farm, fully improved and stocked, and with all the necessary •outbuildings. Mr. Okey is an opponent of borrowing. Where else could the money be obtained for his scheme, even if it were practicable?

HUSHED UP. | Mr. Peter Heyes, Commissioner of Taxes,j and Mr. J. P. Dugdale, Inspecting Valuer, <lwive been asked to resign from the, Civil Service. These gentlemen will, of course, accept this request as an order. I The public will believe that the dismiss-! als are a result of charges formulated against two of their servants during last year, as the resignations come af-' ter secret enquiries into the charges. No one outside of Court and political cir-' eles knows why these men have been called upon to quit the service. Both were the servants of the people who paid them their wages. The people are entitled to know what the charges were, why they were brought, whether they were sustained, and if the invitation tOj quit is a result of the finding of the court of enquiry. As far as the public is concerned, it is in a position to believe what it likes. The secrecy is as unfair to the men concerned as it is to ther employers. In the case of charges being brought against lesser officials, the rule is to make the facts as public, as possible. A defaulting letter carrier has the satisfaction of seeing the allega-| tiom against him published, and if a dis-l missal follows he is not "asked" to re-| signed—he is simply ordered to quit nndi prosecuted. The public, in regard to \fle i Heyes-Dugdale business, does not knowj whether these two persons are guilty j or innocent; it is unable to decide, whether justice has been done; and, if: the veil of mystery is not raised, it will he justified in being suspicious ot the action of authorities which, for some im-| known reason, employ Star Chamber j methods of dealing with a matter of: grave import to every person in New: Zealand. I