“SUSPICIONS.”

Evening Star, Issue 21631, 29 January 1934, Page 11

“SUSPICIONS.”

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —In your footnote to my letter you credit me with making a “ great discovery,” and express the hope I will not be disappointed in your explanation of it. What is this great discovery? That wo have a controlled local Press or that the members of our Relief Committee are public servants? Your explanation is certainly thin when one remembers that Mr MacArthur’s letter was published without any acknowledgment that you had abridged it. Had you offered him the same courtesy you gave mo no suspicion would have been aroused that you had deliberately cut out portion of his letter. You state that there was the danger of a false impression being created if you had published his question on Thursday. Was this danger overcome on Saturday when you published mine? I assure you ' I follow local affairs as closely as any of your readers, but I cannot admit Mr M'lndoe’s travels as of any local importance. Surely he left someone with sufficient knowledge to answer Mr MacArthur’s question. I am aware that the bulk of the business transacted by the Relief Committee is connected with granting assistance to deserving cases (Have I made another great dis-. covery?), but the business -of the Otago Hospital Board follows somewhat similar lines, and yet your reporter is present at all meetings of the latter body. Were he present at the meetings of the Relief Committee he would not report on each individual case treated by that committee, but the public would at least learn how the fund was being administered. —I am, etc., The Man in the Stkeet. [Our correspondent acknowledges the discovery when- he acknowledges the explanation of it. His suspicion having shown his disposition, no comment is required on his attempt to brazen it out—oven to the extent of suggesting that the question which was not published for Mr MacArthur has been published for him.—lid. E.S.] January 27.