OUR SLIGHTED MARTYR

Press, Volume L, Issue 14903, 17 February 1914, Page 8

OUR SLIGHTED MARTYR

TO THR -J-ITOR OF "___e;>E)__s.'»

Sir,—No doubt somebody at To Aroha ought to have supplied a report of Sir- . J. G. "Ward's speech. The public could have read it, or not, at their discretion. :' At th© same time, hi. oomp-ainfc strikes m» i_6— well, as notably characteristic of * its author

1 was in England last May and onr - wards, and I- can asauro you that all ''• Aew Zealanders got a surfeit o_ WanjL ; After having. squandered Mr Seddos'e' ~ ■ magnificent legacy of 65 in a Hou-ri. *"' 80, reducing it to well under .0. pur . " Baronet was strutting about Englim. ■ Quito unabashed, posing as a r_pre_e_. - - tative of New Zealand, and wo .wcr_ " heartily glad when ho sailed for this ' country. Alas! no sooner had ho landed =• here than we read, as of great interest " to English readers, that ho had «r- '"- rived in New Zealand, and had walked--to his seat in the House amid cheers. "- \\e were then treated to a statement of / ' his opinions about the London moner market, opinions which perhaps-were of - interest to some persons iv New Zea- • land, but which no sane person conld , imagine would bo of interest to English"' people, seeing'that they must havo_-en • seven weeks old when uttered. Fancy wiring them back to London! At inter-' .- vals, of course, we had his views about - naval and Imperial questions, and th* last I heard of him was when in Ro_3»_-'. I read his fatuous remarks about-th* . : degeneracy of England. No one pi*" - tends that social conditions in England. are exactly perfect, but why single art - England from all tho other coun_n« . of Europe? Why disparage England in favour, 'nferentially, of America, if it! - comes to that? If you want to seetporerty, dirt, destitution, degradation, illiteracy, why single out England E It-!/; Ireland. Spain, if you like, bot'*flT England, which appears to possett tl» - most tolerable conditions of any 'European couutry ? And I wa s one of several, -New Zealanders and Australians wB» ,- read this outbreak when in Homo or iSaples, where we were all impressed by the garish display and vulgar ostentation of mere gold on the one ifand, ' and the miserable beggars who whined at our feet on the other, where w« were all sickened by the awful cruelty ' to animals, sure sign of human degradation, and by the dirt and stench. At least I hava never smelt an English town ' Jiko . Naples. I want to say that these continuous vapourings did not lead I_> to • advertise, but rather to suppress, tha fact -that we were New Zealanders. ~ that'we came to open English paper* with apprehension, and that I was glad enough to be once more at sea out of the reach of English papers, and tbe taunting laugtiier which their per__al evoked.

All this time not a word about Mr Massey. An occasional reference I* finance, perhaps, but I do not think J once saw the name of ono of onr Minis- ,' ters in an English paper. And it was » bit nnnojing to fasten on to a para-. graph purporting to deal with NewZealand, only tc find that New Zea-" land was bur. Another name for Ward. So that tho mention of Te Arobs does not *nake my f.esh creep, though it i J not precisely satisfactory to note that, after his manrer. onr voloblo Baronet has _nai.a_-d to secure more pnblioity, and possibly sympathy, from the suppression of his remarks than would haw accrued to him from their publication.

How the English wires were martaged I cannot say, but T can assert tha» their effect wns to produce the impres«ion that Sir J. G. Ward was the roost important person in New Zealand.while as far as Press cables are con* corned, few people in England can ha*** read the name of Mnssey. Te Aroha a 3* by no means balanced accounts.**. Youis, etc.. NAUSEATED- :