THE JUBILEE PRIZE POEM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 7974, 14 June 1887, Page 6

THE JUBILEE PRIZE POEM.

TO THE EDITOR. Sib,—A3 you have published an untrue and unjust statement of the Wellington Post, to the effeot that I had contravened the conditions of their Jubilee Pooin Competition, I ask you, in fairness, to allow me a word in self-defence. The only conditions were that the poem should be on the Queen's Jubilee; that it should be original ; and that its length should not exceed 100 lines. All these conditions were oomplied with in my case, and on ita merits the poem was Hfi judged the best. Even supposing that one of the conditions had guarded against prior publication, I have not violated it; for I made no arrangement for j publishing tho poem all over the colony, J and if it appears aiywhere before the 18th I inet»nt it will be by means utterly beycnd my control. But no such condition was imposed, therefore cannot have beeu inj fringed, and the remarks of the Poet are based on a complete misunderstanding of the case. I value the prize much less than Ido the honour of having fairly won it, and, as from what you published this morning, some stigma may seem to attach to my action, I trust to your sense of justice to admit this brief letter.—l am, &c, John L. Kelly. Auckland, 13th June, 1887.