To the Editor of the New Zealand Herald.

New Zealand Herald, Volume II, Issue 350, 26 December 1864, Page 5

To the Editor of the New Zealand Herald.

>Sik, —Will you favour mo by publishing the enclosed letter. It was taken by myself to the editor of the J\vic together with the manuscript signed "Lex," to which the paragraph complained of referred. The whoie matter would he unworthy of notice but for the rash and false aspersion of my personal and professional reputation by the editor oi the -V(f Ztftlttndei'i subsequently shrinking from making the only reparation in his power. I can assure him, °jjt of a very lengthened experience, that the honor or tbepres3 is not sustained by such tricks as this. -Uie following is the letter :— ' Il *i —ln your impression of this day a statement appears, which I have no doubt, upon prool being given, that it is untrue, and, therefore, unfair, you ii /in your next. 1 -lhe statement is the following '• 1 Owing to the great want of courtesy shown to the press on the occasion, we withheld our report of his Honor's remarks,

V I \ derttood «« reporter that ,T V 8 ° f °H lCr dafl * papers would i their report, unless eomo satisfactory exwere given 0 f the manner in v hicli they had boon treated. We have seen, however, in yeetcr- ' ° , on . c our contemporaries a remarkably of a t00k " P lace ' G»-cn ln 'he form signed Lr.x," -with an editorial note apR - , .' P ronil sing a full report in to-day's issue, and ms being simply a gross broach of faith on the part n\- ° or . ter that paper, -wo arc compelled to gi e 111 ull (lie remarks which would otherwise have remained m abcyance.' "Now, tho understanding was this: that in the even ot any application being made, either by liia ° r nn y inthiential person acting 011 the part of tho public, or any section of tlie public, or any other circumstance which could not be foreseen or controlled, tho remarks of his Honor might bo published, with the proviso that I should furnish a copy of my notes to the other papors, an oiler that teas readily accepted. lam tho bearer of this letter signed * .Lex, ivliich I submit for your perusal, and us the -writer is himself a lawyer (as I am informed), was m court, and, aa an educated man, would seize with professional interest- upon the utierances of the judge, I nppeal to yo\i to sny whether the letter, compared with my notes is, or not, such a one as such a person would have written, and whether there is any verbal likeness between my verbatim report and this u markably correct digest." This much is perhaps true that from the very natural interest taken in the matter by persons engaged in commercc, many of 1 whom wcro in Court and heard the learned Judge's remarks, it was to be expected that the Judge's observations w*ould break out one by ono, and it was resolved (in tho interest of the reporters tliemselv cs as it appeared to me), that the ipsissima verba of hie Honor should be published rather than that an imperfect or inaccurate account should find its way into the public prints. lat once sent slips to you and to the *hoi(them Cross and I am sorry to see that, the uso made of them is—a result which I was very anxious to avoid—to render the report verbally inaccurate, and in every important particular incorrect, for which I think his Honor will scarcely be thankful. That done, my obligation ceased. I will add, whatever may be said ot the letter signed "X.ex"—l was in no way privy to it. I knew nothing of it till I saw it in print. I never spoke to the writer in my life, and would not know him if X saw him. I am, therefore, come to prove to you that I liavo not broken faith, and upon the proof of being satisfactory to ask you to correct this paragraph by publishing this letter. ou will do this if you are disposed to do justice. 2f you are not disposed to do justice I will be compelled to publish it myself.

"I am compelled also to observo that your reporter acknowledged to mc that his report was by no means full, and he consented to have a slip of mine. Why should he have wished for mine if his were adequate to the occasion ? He has also behaved very improperly before asking an explanation. He has acted also unwisely, but time will provo this. I have been for more than a dozen years a reporter in the English Houses of Parliament, and I havo never known an instance of this kind occurring during the whole of that period.

"I am, Sir, &c., James Kinseixa. "To tlio Editor of the 2\'cw Zcalnnder."

[We consider the above refutation of tlio very improper paragraph inserted in the JS'ctv Zcalan'der of Friday, unanswerable. If (here is any fault it was not in our reporter. Our reporter says truly that the public evinced a very marked anxiety upon the subject, and never made any arrangement by which the public should sull'er in consequence of the untimely impropriety of one of the legal profession. Our reporter kept faith with his contemporaries by sending the slip of liis Honor's remarks to the Knc Zealandcr. He was bound to do no more. Any further responsibility in the matter rests with us.—Ed. i\". Z. 11.