THE REFORM CANDIDATE.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 April 1922, Page 6

THE REFORM CANDIDATE.

(To the Editor.) Sir,—In your issue of the 6th inst. I notice a letter from “Country Reformer” wherein my name is mentioned as being one who took too much on himself by holding a “hole and corner” meeting and selecting a candidate without giving the outside members of the party an opportunity of taking part in the selection. I quite admit that the procedure was done very quietly, but the quietness was not of my seeking. In fact, I had neither notification of nor invitation to the first meeting. I simply got to know of it by a side wind, gathered up what friends I could find about, and bored my way in. “The inner circle” having thus discovered that I was still alive, did invite me to the second meeting, at which meeting Mr. Bellringer was definitely proposed, and agreed to be the Reform candidate. “Country Reformer” will also pleaae note that he had two years and three months in which to hunt up, propose, or bring forward any person he considered would be a likely candidate; but he does not appear to have troubled himself at all in the matter until others had stepped in and done the deed. Mr- Bellringer is a man well known in and around New Plymouth, a man of principle, of easy access, a good speaker, a man genial and kind in all his ways, but, above all, he is a loyal and trustworthy subject of the British Empire, and a fearless supporter of the best and only leader in New Zealand, namely, the Right Hon. W. F. Massey. That is good enough for me, and I hope also for “Country Reformer.” And now, just a word or two in reply to “F. Davis,” New Plymouth, whose letter appears in your same issue. Mr. Davis is in error in stating that the chameleon changes its coat, whereas it only changes its color. That is a big mistake for a lofty critic to be guilty of immediately he starts talking down to a man of character. A man of character must of necessity change from bad to better when he finds that his party, or leaders, have dwindled down to be a lot of political humbugs, the supporting of whom would be a reflection on his personal intelligence. lam afraid Mr- F. Davis does not know what it is to be loyal to a high ideal. “Unto thyself be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, that thou can’st not be false to any man.” Now, Sir, that is good, that is beautiful, that is true; and that is just what Mr. C. E. Bellringer has determined to carry out. But Mr. F. Davis would have us believe that it is the proper thing to keep on supporting a party, if you have once supported it, when you believed it to be sound, no matter how incompetent, how weak and disgraceful it becomes. A cow may eagerly eat of a given plant when that plant is fresh and green, but will pass it by as a thing unclean when it is mildewed, gone bad, or turned rotten. But not so Mr- F. Davis; he having once eaten it, would continue to eat it, no matter how rotten!—l am, etc., J O. TAYLOR. Westown.