MR. SIEVWRICHT TO MR. O'REGAN.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 148, 17 March 1908, Page 4

MR. SIEVWRICHT TO MR. O'REGAN.

Sir, —Your correspondent Mr. O'Regan has now decided . not. to "• denounco the lato Mr. David Symo any. wore; but in coming to this resolvo I 'nover for. a moment thought ho .would do mo .the honour/of attacking mo m the liTO'Ga««tr?l iariterl.hhu to slay. . .1 defondod -.tho late Mr. Syme- as -a -Scotsman and journalist ooi uaore,' *and"foi« Having rifidite'tcd lii'm ijjiiast'.'Mr.' I. am iri. tvini bosmirelied. '''At 'tho' outset 1 had in.mind this, risk and took it. •'•'Now what is my olf&ndiug? First, I attended a mooting Mid took a' seat on tho 'platform. ,'as.Mr.,o'Began ,;,says„ uninvited. 1 remember this, mo®ting._ l attended it in my capacity 1 .as a 1 journalist: •-!- was then kvidor-UTitor for. the ''Now : Zealand Times." •One ,of th«' ; promoters—a friend of my own <aad : a; Srotman-T-M^eelto", go on -to •. tho platform "so as to help' take off tire emptiness of the stage" or worns to that effect. Now •for'being- and jobliging, I am After 'this.i'lengtK: of :tiiho;'a'lßfscd.l(t7<Jan' it be that Mr.. o'R«gan on that occasion .also .realised his capacity,to, fill; all vacancy, -and'thiit'at this disfanco' J df "time tho recollbction of even my occasional "Hear, heai'j" still ronsos his wrath P. •• •- . , r

Secondly, as cdi6or .of the "Now. Zealand Mail" I-am, charged .with; being "a, raucous ;advocatoVof Mr.' Ohamborlain's fiscal'policy.!' Had Mr. O.'Rogau .said ; "earnest" advocato ■I- would havo' pleaded guilty to this ■ charge, but."raucous" is,- an adjective that only •applies'to that-kind of speech with which Mr. O'llegan is jiiott I ; should ' imagine, unfamiliar. . ' '";'•■

• (Thirdly,-1 am-accused of writing" to Mr. John Burns "oxprossing surprise",'that tho British Labour party woro ■ freetraders 1 IBy letter from some political organisation at Homo 1 was asked as .a journalist'to summariso;.public'opinion-, in-, N^lfi'Zealand ro-sppctdngi'.pTet-ection and freetrader. 'Leonid 'not-have '•'expressed surpriso , 'j..that i the':LabOur,; party at Homo were freetraders aslthat h»vd.bo<m knoirn to me for aa long as'l can rraaember;: but I probably, remarked the contrast, between* th-o Lflbou'r party, in New- Zealaid—b«tig genenlly' protectionist' and preferential—and the Labour party at Homo : bemg generally; freotniders. • This .summary got into the newspapers at Home, was referred to' by Mr., John Burns slid'others, and was,sent, back -to Now Zealand by tlio don' correspondents of leading- New' Zealand papers.-.' , But Mi\ O'Regan says; ho read it as- 'fa special ~ telegram, ■ presumably insp'red, in the 'Otago Daily. Times!' " j. I: can • forgive Mr. O'Rcgan the inuendo oontained in this stato'ment: becauso these aro tho wild; and haphazard things -one says -when he loses his temper and has no notion of tho truth of the-mattor.—l am, etc., : . :-; ■'• - ' J. D. SIEVWRIGHT. - ■ v jMaroh 12.