CHALLENGE EXPOSED.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1190, 27 July 1911, Page 5

CHALLENGE EXPOSED.

THE.MOKAU TRANSACTION. ME. C. A. LOTJGHNAN AGAIN. WHAT HIS OFFER REALLY MEANb. Sir,—l regret that pressure of my own business, and my enforced departure, from Wellington by tho afternoon tram yesterday rendered it impossible- for uio to reply to tho sub-lender which you "so flatteringly devoto to my case. Permit me, however, to point out to your readers llw following:—

Jl) I am not the secretory of the Mokau Company. (2) That, notwithstanding the gratuitous publication 'of my challenge bv most of uio great dailies of the colony,'including two out of tho threo Wellington papers, it has taken you many days in which to discover in it merely a shallow trick, vhereas your contemporary and Opposition co league, tho "Evening Post,'- in a sub-lcadcr on Saturday night, devoted lo the same subject, found to much substance i? l l,y , ° ner ns t0 authoritatively declare «i L"V' s f loso ~oth m " nev an( l vote. v'J. inat 1 came into the controversy originally disclaiming all political interest, which 1 still disclaim, but expressly W proclaim iho gross inaceuraucy of specific statements made by tho Loader ol the Opposition, and deliberately designed to throw discredit upon the action of a combination or combinations of private individuals of high character, whoso names are contained in my original letter and for whom 1 have been acting pro. iessionallv. b '

11) Ihat, in order (o remove my challenge lroni tho legions of uncertainty, to meet the contentions raised by tho 'Wellington Post, and to negative any possible suggestion of trickery upon ray part, i. • • . propounded the specific charges of inaccuracy against Mr. Massey to which, you allude in your sub-leader. Of these eight statements not onu is true, nor can you deny that Mr. Mas.sey made them all. i

(•>) Aprnin, Iho eight inaccuracies are certainly irrelevant to the political proposilion nut. forwiirtl by you, but thev lire irrelevant only for tlui reason that they are untrue, and unon tho semiEuclidean proposition that things which do not exist at all cannot possibly havo relevance to things which do. On tho other hand, did they, or did any one of them happen to be true, not ontv would they be relevant to your political charge*, but they would form the gravamen of those very charges. (6) Driven, therefore, by the pitiless logic of your own conclusions, vou have arrived at this pass in the argument, namely, that tho Leader of lho Opposition (good easy man) must be excused for his gross perversions of the truth, merely because they are perversions of the truth, and private persons who have been maligned must not defend themselves, because political ouestions have become involved which don't concern them,' and are irrelevant. Thanking you for giving publication to this, my answer to your sub-leader, and thanking you for the attention you havo already given to my contribution to tho Mokau sensation— Yours, etc., C. A. LOUGHNAN. July 25.

[It does no matter very much whothel' Mr. Loughnan is the secretary or tho solicitor of tho Mokau Company', his purpose is plain enough. But since ho will persist in dragging in the ridioulous "challengo" with which he is seeking to obscuro the issues which concern Iho public, it may be as well to let the public see what an empty thing it really is. Let us take, for instance, tho first issue which ho has obligingly framed, and concerning which he offers to pay ,£IOO to the Palmcrston North Hospital if, a jury says tho allegation contained in it was made by Mr. Massey and was true. Here it is:— I ; . .(a) Did Mr. Massey directly or by " innuendo allege that the Mokau Coal and Estates Company, Ltd., or tho syndicate known as the Hawko's Bay ■~ Syndicate, bad acquiredv.Uic freehold of tho Mokau Block direct from tho Maoris under the authority of an Ordev-in-Council? If so, was such Allegation true or false? Mr. Masssey did not make any such allegation. Mr. Massey distinctly stated that an individual purchased tho land from the Natives—ho did not mention either a syndicate or a company as being the purchasers from the Natives. Ho stated, moreover, that this individual "turned round, and sold it straight away to a syndicate." Is not that clear enough? But to put an end to this silly challenging business of tho solicitor of the Mokau Company once and for all time, we will quote Mr. Massoy's words, as published in full in the columns of the Auckland "Horald." After reviewing Mr. Jones's connection with the case, he went on to say: "They [the Native Lauds Comniismission] recommended the Government to deal with it, and to set apart part of it for tho Native owners, and open the rost for settlement. ,But tho interest of tho mortgagees in Wellington was sold in Wellington for a nominal sum, and tho individual who purchased it set to work to approach tho congregated Native owners-, and offered them a price which they declined. Now, 1 want to know how ho became aware that the Government would give him the freehold of iho block if tho Natives had consented to let him purchase. Tho Act states that no Europea.u can purchase more than 409 acres of first-class land from Native owners. But there is another clause in the Act, which says that when it is in tho public interest tho Governor mav bv Ordcr-in-Council issue a title to the' purchasers. Evidently this person had convinced himself that it would bo in the public interest to allow him. to acquire the freehold. The Natives were called together ngain, n.ntl some more inducement offered, and this time they agreed, and sold tho estate. You know what tho land in Taranaki is like, and you know alxmt tho land, hunger. That 50,000 acres was sold to him for about ten shillings an acre. Ho turned round and sold it straight away to a syndicate at a profit of moro than 100 per cent. The lawyers who acted for the individual who owned tho mortgage, and who was purchasing the land from tho Natives, were Findlny, Dalziell, and Co.'' Tho above is copied from the full r©. port of Mr. Mass-ey's speech, published in the Auckland •'Herald" of July 20, and republished in our columns a day or two Inter.- If shows as plain as words can show that Mr. Massey slated clearly and positively that an individual, and not a. syndicate or company, bought the land d'ircct from tho Natives under the authority of an Ordcr-in-Council. The public can see for themselves how easily Mr. Massey could smash this silly challenge if it were what it professes to be. But let them look at tho wording of tho undertaking given by this volatile legal luminary, who rushes in to tho rescue of his friend, Mr. M'Nab. Ho says •.— "I undertake, if Mr. Massey or his friends succeed in obtaining a verdict affirming tho truths of any one of the several allegations claimed by mo to have been made by Mr. Massey, as set out in tho above questions, to pay ono hundred pounds to tho Palmerston North Hospital." To put it plainly, he first, as wo havo shown above, mis-states v hat Mr. Massey said, and then valiantly issues his challenge to Mr. Massey to prove that this mis-statement is the truth. Or, in other words, he puts into Mr. Massoy's month a statement which Mr. Massey did not make and which is not true, and then says he willgive XIOO to tho Hospital if Mr. Massey can prove the statement Inio. What a shallow trick this challengo is when scrutinised tho public can sco for themselves. It is almost ai> shallow as tho first effort which we exposed a few days ago. If Mr. I/inghnon thinks that snoh tactics aro likely to assist tho candidature of his friend Mr. M'Nab or help the Government out of their difficulties he greatly misjudges the view the public, is likely to take of them, Plain, open dealing, not quibbling, playing with words, and hair-splitting is what tho public wajit in respect of tlus Mokau transaction, and, Mr. Loughnan notwithstanding, they arc going to get it. Wo mav add that two alterations havo been made in Mr. Loughnan's letter as published above. The word "inaccuracy" has been substituted in two places Co tho term used by tho writer I .]