NEW ZEALAND AND THE CORONATION.

Grey River Argus, 28 January 1911, Page 1

NEW ZEALAND AND THE CORONATION.

IMAGINARY INVITATIONS. ' PRIME MINISTER -IN CAUSTIC MOOD. THE ACTUAL POSITION EXPLAINED. I Criticism of the Government for alleged evasiveness in regard to invitations for oversea delegates to the

Coronation celebrations was referred to by- a New. Zealand Times representative when interviewing the Prime Minister (Sir Joseph Ward) last night. '■If anything has. to be disclosed, will you take this opportunity of. doing so?" asked the interviewer.

Sir Josephs reply was to pay a doubtful compliment to the imagination of those who have been unofficial ly informing the public on the subject. "The grotesqueness of- the imaginings of those who' suggest that ■the Government is .keeping something back is too ludicrous for he remarked. "Np invitation of any sort or. kind has been received by the Government for members of the Legislature to attend the Coronation ceremony, and this has been already stated definitely by me, not in evasive terms, but most explicitly. One can only, suggest that the repetition of the same silly statements indicates^ that those who are responsible have very little else to do, or that they are very hard up for .something., to write about. If' any invitation had been received by the Government the members of Parliament would have' been communicated with at v once. Thus my reply to your inquiry is that there has been no invitation of any 1 kind. That is explicit enough, I ■supposee? FALSE. BASIS OF CRITICISM. . "It is nothing uncommon," remarked the, Prime Minister, "to find that our opponents, writing with, object of. assuming superiority of judgment, make statements of the most inaccurate kind. >Is it to be wondered at that when they do make some statement which is really true, that scarcely anybody believes them ? Then upon these utterly " inaccurate state-: •ments one finds these heaven-born ' critics (in their own estimation of course) building- up more inaccuracies which would do credit to .an Ananias. I oread an, article in oe of the Opposition newspapers a day or two ago- that marked the writer out as -a person of such capacity that : » ordinary .avenues, of occupation ne would be" hardly worth a pound a', week, unless a strangely warped imaginat\ciri is a valuable asset- somewhere. At one time, proved inaccu racy was looked upon as a complete disqualification for -a responsible pos- , ition-, but nowadays we get the most puerile statements with no semblance of accuracy served up by a certain class of journalism, and upon these 4 inaccuracies is based a solemn condemnation of the Government It is ■all founded on a tissue of misrepresentations, so is it any wonder that the opinions are .unreliable, _ too ? I expect,,. that having once more repeat-. ■ Ed my declaration that there is np in . vitation such as we have heard alleged, I shair in the customary manner be told that I am evasive, but T hope that my answer, with a little caustic criticism of the methods adopted, will by most reasonable people be accepted as absolutely final ■^nd unqualified." ;