THE MEMBER FOR NEW PLYMOUTH.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 2980, 20 August 1891, Page 4

THE MEMBER FOR NEW PLYMOUTH.

TO TUB EDITOR. Siu —A3 a specimen of the inane rot and twaddle talkod by the members of the " true " Liboral party, the following speech delivered by E. M. Smith, the member for New Plymouth, on the Private Schools JJill, ia instructive; as evidence of the mental calibre of the men returned by the Labour party to frame laws by which educated and intelligent colonists are to be governed, it is exasperating and mortifying. For talking such uttor rubbish the colony will shortly, according to present indications, be paying K. M. Smith and others of tha samo ilk £210por annum, as well as the cost of embalming tho oratnrial garbage in Hansard. The following is the speech refurred to, and I think Mr Barugh will admit that oven £150 is too much to pay for such balderdash :—" Lust week I tooksomo honourable members from this dreary and weary town of Wellington up to tho Garden of New Zealand, and I showed them all round tho place and took them to the national school there, so that they might see how wo conduct our national system in that place. It was a great pleasure to me to nee the rosy-cheeked girls and tho happyfaced boys going on with their lessons there, and when the master called uu the various little boya and girls it was a delight to ma. One little boy of nina years old was called up, and let me tell you that, although he was so young, ho knew a great deal more about New Zaaland than many lion, gentlemen here. I heard a whispering: "That's Smith's boy '—and so it was, a son of mine; and, although only nine yeats of age, he wrote to me for Hansard, stating that he was studying politics, and hoped to become Premier or Postmaster-General, but would prefer to be Premier because the Postmaster-General got no pay." Young Smith is evidently "a chip off the old block," and even at this early stage of his political studies he has discovered that patriotism, as understood in Now Zealand, does not rise abovo the honorarium and ministerial screws.—Yours, etc., Liberal.