THE PROPOSED ALDRIDGE-SCOTT BENNETT DEBATE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 135, 8 June 1911, Page 2

THE PROPOSED ALDRIDGE-SCOTT BENNETT DEBATE.

(Tα the Editor.) Sir.T—A surprisingly, unfair.- letter ap» pears in your issue-of: yesterday-ia" reference ta the above, subject from, a Mfc I* iE. Ealkner. lie- me* as. Briefly as : pcs' sibJe, etate factss About, a. week after, the delivery of the lecture to which your correspondent refers, I received, a. letter from Mr. Aldridge, in: which, he expressed his willingness, to. debate witli mc, subject to certain conditions. 1 agreed to the conditions (a two nights , debate was not mentioned), and., announced, tile debate from the Opera House platform upon- the following- Sunday. A. little later Mi". Aldridge again wrote mc upon the subject, but no reference was made to the necessity of a twa-nights' debate* Wlien representa? tives met, however, and it was pointed out that I could not agree to a - two* nights' debate for obvious reasons > Mr. Aldridge, through a representative, called the debate " off." It is interesting to note that, as a friend informs mc, the 'Mangarassan.Clarke debate in Chicago, upon- the very subject Mr. Aidridge andl were to discuss, was a one-night debate! As to the ''wild statements," etc., that i am alleged to make, my reply is that I always allow ample time after my lectures for questions, a practice that might be followed with advantage by those ivJid occupy pulpits! —I am, etc., H. SCOTT BENNETT. [Mr. Wine; a member of Mr. Bennett's ■committee, also sends a letter wMcih. is to the same effect as the- airove^—Ed.].