DR, VALINTINE EXPLAINS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 9 June 1928, Page 8

DR, VALINTINE EXPLAINS.

STATEMENT DISAVOWED. DUNEDIN, June 6.' ■ Interviewed to-day regarding the reply, to liis denial of a statement made by him in Wellington recently, Dr. T. H. A. Valin tine, Director-General ot Health, made it clear* that he did not intend to go into the matter until he returned North and was able to institute. inquiries. He declined to discuss the position further. A message from Napier stated that Dr. Valintine, while in Napier last week, denied having made statements attributed to him by a Wellington correspondent. In a letter to a Napier paper, the correspondent, replied that Dr. Valintine’s statement to him was made in a special interview in. his office on the afternoon of May 18. “I have no recollection of malting the statement attributed to me by the correspondent of the Napier paper,” said Dr. Valintine to a “Daily Times” reporter. “It is possible that I used the, ivords in the course of conversation, but, if so, they %vere not used in reference to the matter now under discussion.” : The statement disavowed by Dr. Valintine was published on ''May 18 and read: —“Replying to Dr. J. Allan Beri’y’s remarks with reference to Dr. Valintine's rejection of the gift of £3OOO to provide a solarium at Napier Hospital, the Director-General of Health is reported to have said, ‘lt is pure misrepresentation.’ Dr. Valintine added that he had a great respect for sun treatment, but that the position at Napier created ia difficulty. If work was allowed to proceed, it would create a precedent which would be quoted.”