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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 80a

Confidential Information

Confidential Information.

Mr. Theodore Cooper was advocate for the Bank of New Zealand for three or four months in Wellington, and engineered the blockade of any questions likely to elicit the information the Committee was set up to obtain, viz.:—¶ What led to the purchase of the Colonial Bank? He it was who provided all the «Not in the order of references» ammunition which the Premier fired off. He was the power behind the throne. His brief was marked with a fat fee, but there was more in that brief than most people dreamed of at the time.

There was a vacant Judgeship in the gift of the Ministry, and it was no secret that Mr. Theo. Cooper was in the running for it. The daily papers looked on him as a moral, and there was considerable surprise when Mr. Edwards was appointed, The man in the street was puzzled, and asked, «¶What's up?»

The mystery is now solved—the cat is out of the bag—the oracle himself hath spoken. Mr. Theo. Cooper's instructions were to block all inquiry in the Committee, and to do something else as well. He; was to abandon the etiquette of his profession, and stand on a platform side by side with Mr. T. Thompson and tell an Auckland audience that, as the lawyer of the bank, he could assure the electors that his client, the said bank, had done nothing wrong; that Mr. Ward was a martyr; and that he, Mr. Theo. Cooper, knew all about what went on behind the scenes. Which was eminently condescending on the part of Mr. Theo. Cooper; but it would have been more satisfaction to the public if he had helped to get at the truth instead of preventing awkward questions being answered.

The real reason of Mr. Theo. Cooper standing on that platform and abandoning the dignity and reserve which attaches to his profession regarding cases in which he is confidentially engaged—was to barrack for the Government candidate, Mr. T. Thompson, and the public may well ask, «?What price, Cooper?»