CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 296, 24 May 1915, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

A MINISTERIAL EXPLANATION. ■A rather surprising sequel to the upsetting of the Hay of Islands election by the judges of the Supreme Court was the publication on Tuesday in the 'Wellington Government organ of an explanation from the lips of the Hon. 11. D. Bell of the Prime Minister's connection with the incidents that led to the disqualification of Mr. Vernon Reed. Mr. Hell is not a Minister who uses words lightly, and his statement of what happened, which probably has been circulated fairly widely hy this time, may be regarded as embodying the considered views of the Ministry. Considered in that light, the explanation is a really astonishing political document. The Minister said first that Mr. G. Wilkinson was the Reform Party's candidate for the Bay of Islands seat at the election of 1911, when lie was defeated by Mr. Vernon Heed, the ''candidate of the ■party led by Sir Joseph Ward." Mr. Heed won the seat and in the first session of 1012 he "became a member of the (Deform) party,'' to which he gave •'loyal and consistent" support during the life of the Parliament. Then came the general election of 1014. Mr. Heed wanted to stand again, in order to prove that his constituents approved of the course he had taken in 1012 in changing sides, and the Reform Tarty was ''bound by every obligation to support Mr, Heed." But Air. Wilkinson, who had carried the Reform banner in 1011, had ''unquestioned claims upon the party and its leader." Mr. Massey had found it necessary to appoint a certain number of gentlemen to the Legislative ( oitncil in order to secure the passage of his legislation, and, according to Mr. Bell, it would have been "unfair and disloyal on Mr. Masscy's part to have, abstained from giving intimation - ' that Mr. T\ ilk in soil could, have one of the seats 011 the Council' if he wanted it. "Mr. Massey was bound in all fairness and justice to give the opportunity of a seat to Mr. Wilkinson," says Mr. Bell, "and I should personally have felt ashamed if for any reason Mr. Massey had acted otherwise than he did. Mr. Wilkinson could, of course, please himself."