IT LOOKS QUEER.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 450, 6 May 1890, Page 2

IT LOOKS QUEER.

A charge of an unpleasant nature has been made against the Premier—it was with his full sanction that the conveyancing business of the Insurance Depart-

ment was recently taken from a highly respectable firm j which has had it for ten years past, and been given to a firm of only recent standing, but in which the Premier’s son is a partner. In the course of a weighty article the Wellington Press says : —“ It is quite natural for a father to believe in the talents of his son. But it was the duty of the Premier, having such a belief, to leave those talents to found their own fortune, not to put fortune into the lap of a son out of an appointment in the public service, which it was entirely in his hand to give or to withhold. It is not our purpose, not is it incumbent on us to discuss the Worthiness of the young men who have received the appointment. That there are any number of professional men in this city undoubtedly of at least equal ability, and of much greater experience, is quite beyond question. We unhesitatingly say that the course taken in regard to this appointment is unwise, it is imprudent, it is impolitic, and it is detrimental to the public service. It bears, however unintentionally, the mark of political action and of personal favor. If once the suspicion is allowed to spring up that such motives may cause appointments to be cancelled and appointments to be made, it is difficult to see where the mischief will end. The action of one party will then be avenged by its victors, and the spoils of office will be extended in a kind of geometrical progression which will very soon be fatal to the entire administration of public affairs.”