An Extraordinary Article.

Hastings Standard, Issue 128, 23 September 1896, Page 4

An Extraordinary Article.

[Otago Daily Times.] The Financial News of August 6th contains a letter headed " New Zealand Finance," purporting to be from its correspondent in this colony, and dated from " Wellington" on June 29, which we have read with no small astonishment. We have placed the word " Wellington " in quotation marks because the contents of the letter provoke a grave suspicion that London, not New Zealand, was the place of production. We are aware that this is a serious insinuation to make, but our readers will hardly think it unjustifiable when we have given a few extracts from the letter. Here are a few of the gems (the reference being to the ex-Colonial Treasurer) ;

" His breach of faith in connection with the last Government loan will not have been forgotten, nor his address to the bondholders of the Taranaki and Midland Railway Company. . . . It has not, however, been the disappointment of the British bonholders of the Taranaki and Midland Railway Company. . . . Dr Newman, formerly Treasurer of New Zealand, is also submitted to the lash of Mr Ward's accusing tongue." Again, the writer, wherever his habitat may be, refers to the " proposed amalgamation of the bankrupt Colonial Bank with its chief creditor, the Bank of Zealand," and comments on what he describes as the " obvious fact" that Mr Ward used his position as a Minister to " further the interests of his own banks." There is a passing allusion to the leader of the Opposition, Sir Robert Storet, who is said to have been accused by Mr Ward of ''purchasing by bribes enormous concessions ■ from the Bank of New Zealand—some exceeding £250,000." But we have yet to quote what is perhaps the most significant sentence in this curious letter from " Wellington." Mr Ward's troubles, says the writer, " have for some weeks past formed the subject of judicial investigation, and the result has been his conviction of something which we in England should call by a somewhat harsher name than " indiscretion " —the term applied to it out here," The writer is a sad bungler, whether he be " in England " or " out here " ; but the " we in England " looks uncommonly like an inadvertent slip on the part of an individual concocSng in London (by the aid of New Zealand newspapers) a letter jrarporting to come from Wellington." It is unconceivable that the veriest political tyro in Wellington could have made the extraordinary blunders which We have noted. Whatever may have been the circumstances of the production, the whole letter is deplorably unfair. We ousselves feave felt it ft©eesßa% [/ f t An id "I ' 1H *

to criticise Mr Ward's actions with considerable severity, but justifiable severity is one thing, blundering brutality another. The second sentence in the letter is, so far as regards malevolence, a type of the whole. " The number of scandals, with whieh, during his brief career as a Minister of the Crown, he has been connected have at length compelled his resignation of a post he should never have been allowed to occupy." We cannot too strongly deprecate this tone of bitterness and exaggeration. Even if there was no exaggeration, small credit could be given to a writer who describes Dr. Newman as a former Treasurer of New Zealand and " Sir Robert Storet " as leader of the Opposition, and who talks about the " Taranaki and Midland Railway Company." As regards the "we in England " and the "out here"—indeed, as regards all the matters which we have mentioned—we shall await with interest the -explanation of the editor of the Financial News.