DOMINIC NOLAN CASE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXII, Issue 2672, 29 December 1928, Page 5

DOMINIC NOLAN CASE.

FALSE REPORT REFUTED. STATEMENT OF THE FACTS. The Rev. George W. Blair, the Manse, Waiapu, writes to the Belfast Evening Telegraph throwing new light on the death of Dominic Nolan and the unfortunate attitude taken up by the London Daily Herald and other newspapers (states the Auckland Herald's London correspondent.) The Daily Herald not only gave undue prominence to the sad occurrence, but went further, and published a letter from the secretary of the Waitomo branch of the New Zealand Labour Party, stating that the incident was only one of many of a like nature which had occurred recently, and adding that "hundreds of starving men are wandering about the roads of the country. "Alas, for the Daily Herald's statement," writes Mr Blair, "the very latest news is that the Waitomo branch of the New Zealand Labour Party, at a meeting on September 6, dissociated itself from the communication sent to the London Daily Herald regarding conditions if immigrants in New Zealand." The resolution, as quoted by v Mr Blair, is as follows—" This meeting of the Waitomo Labour Party entirely dissociates itself from the statement contained in a press message alleged to have been sent by its secretary to the London Daily Herald. While agreeing that there is much unemployment in New Zealand, it is not correct that many are dying of starvation. It is the opinion of this meeting that the alleged statement must have been misconstrued from a private letter written by the late secretary to the Daily Herald without the sanctiin or knowledge of the Waitomo branch of the Labour Party of New Zealand." Mr Blair continues—''After such a disclaimer it is surely up to the editor of the Daily Herald to offer an ample apology for the misleading and erroneous statements published in his paper. It is over 15 years since the writer left Belfast to come to this country, and his only regret is that he did not come much sooner. I can safely say that during all the years I have been in this highly-favoured land I have come across very few cases of poverty or dire need. There are cases of unemployment, but I have never yet heard of any—save poor Nolan—who died of starvation. "And it is my firm conviction that Dominic Nolan need not have died as he did—in the scrub at the roadside. If poor Nolan had not been too proud, ho might have been alive and well today. It has been stated that when he was in need he was too proud to ask for helpi—help that would have been gladly and readily given, ( had it only been asked for."