THE SELLARS TYPE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 178, 28 July 1913, Page 9

THE SELLARS TYPE.

NOT WANTED IN NEW ZEALAND. (Fron; Our Soeclal Correspondent) LONDON, June 20. The High Commioidcnpr has addressed the following letter to Mr J. Sellars, in reply to one received from that gentleman:— "Sir, —Your letter of the Gth ia?t. to hand, in which you coinpiam that, 'among other thinps, the Press is not giving you the scope that you desire, and that your letter in reply" to m.ne — meaning, no doubt, that which appeared in the "'Daily News and Leader' —was not published. Well, if you will pardon my candour, 1 may say "that the 'Da'lj lSe-r.s and Leader has championed your cause to an extent that would have been done by few papers in a case such as yours. You talk aoout the Press of Britain being muzzled; I know of r.o slanders that have been more widely circulated than yours have been. I have received cuttings from dozens of newspapers from all parts of the United Kingdom, in which your story was told in the most pathetic terms, people little knowing how unsuitable you and your family were to the requirements of an enterprising and energetic young community. "So far as we are concerned, you may use the public Press as much as you like. We are getting as many people of grit and stamina as we desire for our country; and if your correspondence !•» to have any " elTect at all, it ■""ill act in the direction of keeping away the very claps we do not desire to have, and leave room for thos« whom New Zealand wishes to add to itd permanent population. If peop.e do not think the country is good enough to fight for. let them star away."

Mr. Sellar;-' r. ition that he had been badly treated by the Prc.vs here is decidedly fuuny. For three or four weeks on end the Press cuttings supplied to the High Commissioner's office consisted of little beyond article* and letters concerning the "family ruined by conscription," which had 'appeared in scores of London 'and provincial newspapers; in tact, the Englishman who has not read or heard something about the Sellars case must he either a hermit or a person who. like a certain famous politician, never reads the papers.

_('nly two matters in connection with New Zealand which tlio present writer can call to mind has fourd greater free publicity in the Home Prefix than Ihe Sellars affair. Of pride of place must be given to the Dreadnought gift; the other was the tour of ihe "Ml Blacks."