HISTORICAL ACCURACY

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 29, 4 February 1937, Page 12

HISTORICAL ACCURACY

(To the Editor.}

Sir, —Mr. Buick is incorrect when he says that the very questions formulated in my letter had been previously discussed. They were formulated for the first time when the letter was composed for "The Post," and they had not been submitted to Mr. Buick on any previous occasion, either orally or in writing. My sole object in giving publicity to the questions was to interest the numerous readers of "The Post" in the general question of historical accuracy so far as the early history of New Zealand is concerned. Mr. Buick, after stating that East and West can never meet, suggests that private discussion would be helpful. I trust that you, Mr. Editor, will support the view that in the public interest a reasonable measure of public discussion is a policy much to be preferred when the object is to elucidate the true facts of our national history. In the course of my own studies I have encountered so many inaccurate and careless statements that I have decided not to lose any opportunity of correcting false impressions. With the aid of your valuable columns, one imagines that other students will be enabled to contribute valuable matter dealing with New Zealand's early history. It is gratifying to observe that such an enthusiastic and accurate scholar as Mr H Fildes has already entered the lists If I suggest to him that there is room for a difference of opinion on some of the matters he has dealt with am sure that he will not suggest that there is any better method of discussing these points than through the columns of the "Evening Post1 With regard to Mr. Buick's announcement that he intends to write a book on the subject, I would like to observe that "Auch ich war in Arkadien geboren" and that I have practically ready for Publication a sketch of the "Constitutional Development of New Zealand" during the first decade of the colony, but with all due respect to Mr. Buick, it is certain that the circulation of the •'Evening Post" will be much greater than either of our books. Might I suggest that Mr. Buick should deal with the following proposition also in his intended volume: That the Treaty of Waitangi, in its inception could find no place in international law nor did it have any standing in the'municipal law of England, either in the direction of creating any law or as a "cession" of English law.-I am' 6tC" N. A. FODEN. j