POLITICAL PERSONALITIES

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXI, Issue LXII, 10 May 1912, Page 5

POLITICAL PERSONALITIES

THE PREMIER AND MR MASSEY

fßr Telegr.' y ~.«— Spectat to Star.]

WELLINGTON, May 9, The exchange of messages between the Premier and the Leader of the Opposition resulting from the lattei-o-?_-mark that "a Mackenzie could always be bought," has provoked the former to send the following telegram: "W. F. Massey, Esq., Auckland. Re Mackenzie clan . Your telegram received yesterday while at the back of the Waiau. Ido not gather from it that you deny having made an unjustifiable reflection on the name of an honored clan, and also on myself personally. The necessarily curtailed report of my remarks contains practically the essence of what I said. Hence my defence not only of the Mackenzies but also of all other Highland clans, when I declared that although £30,000 was offered for Prince Charles, not one of them would touch a penny of the bribe. If you assert that you did not make the serious reflections on the Mackenzies which I have alluded to, I will at once furnish you with my source of information. Might I point out that you did not show great alacrity in responding to the demands in Parliament on you for the source of information of the statement that certain members of Parliament had offered money to square another member of Parliament.—T. Mackenzie."