MR. BRYCE AND THE LYTTELTON TIMES CORRESPONDENT.

Evening Post, Volume XXI, Issue 72, 28 March 1881, Page 3

MR. BRYCE AND THE LYTTELTON TIMES CORRESPONDENT.

« TO THI BDITOB 07 THB EVENING POST. Sib— As no one dreams of asking the New Zealand Times to correct or explain any false Btateme.it or unfounded accusation it may have mule, will you kindly allow me to avail myself 61 your love of fair play and more extended circulation to comment briefly upon remarks referring to me in the leading columns of yonr contemporary. The Times publishes for the second time Mr. Bryce's attaok upon me. To this I have no objection. It then assumes his statements to be true, apparently on the exceedingly logical reasoning that Mr. Bryoe is an ex-Minister and that I am the Lyttelton Times correspondent. To this I certainly do object. While with a cunning pretence el fair play your contemporary Bays " every word of Mr. Bryce's serious accusation should be challenged by the accused," it has already prejudged me. Personally, I do not care one straw for the good or the bad opinion of the Times, but I do value the good opinion of some of those under whose notice the comments in question may come. As a matter of faot I have challenged " every word of Mr. Bryoe's serious accusation in a letter to the editor of the Lyttelton Times, which letter, I apprehend, will be published on Wednesday next, the accident to the Penguin having delayed its transmission. That letter is, I am afraid, too long to be republished in your columns, but I shall in due course invite your unbiassed comment upon it. Perhaps, howaver, you will allow me to at onoe dispose of by far the moßt serions of Mr. Bryoe's charges, viz., that I " was always trying to get money out of the Government." The only money transaction I ever had or sought to have with the Government was under the following circumstances :— ln August, 1879, 1 went to Parihaka as speoial correspondent of the Lyttelton Times. On my return to Wei* lington I had many conversations with Colonel Whitmore, then Defence Minister, relative to the nature of the country immediately surrounding Parihaka, of which the department and the officers of the Armed Constabulary appeared to be utterly ignorant. Colonel Whitmore considered my information on this point valuable, and commissioned me to put m writing what I had told him verbally, and to draw up a rough sketch plan of the place, at the same time offering | me a very moderate remuneration for the work. A variety of circumstances prevented my doing the work until the present Government came into power, when, upon delivery of the report and accompanying plan, I wsb duly paid the sum which Colonel Whitmore stipulated to pay. Truly this is a grave offence. I repeat that this is the only money I have ever received, or sought to receive, from any Government ; and yet) Mr. Bryce says I was "always trying to get money out of the Government." In my letter to the Lyttelton Times I dispose of Mr. Bryce's othor oharges with equal ease. Mr. Bryce was perfeotly correot in stating that I wrote " asking him for an appointment," but with what special and perfectly legitimate journalistic object in view he does not state ; nor does he Bay that I asked for no remuneration, nor would I have accepted any. The Times alßo seeks to drag up the old " Swamp " story, endeavouring to make it appear that I acquired "unenviable notoriety " with respect to that matter, whon it knows perfectly well that after a long fight, Colonel Roberts' official report conclusively and finally settled the matter in my favor. Being somewhat behind the scenes, nothing would have astonished me more than if the proprietory of the New Zealand Times had not seized upon Mr. Bryce's attaok to "pitch into" me ; and I have a shrewd guess that most of the public can also read between the lines. lam, Ac., CORBESPONDENT" LyTTBLTON TIMIS.