THE PREMIER AND MR. ATKINSON.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11871, 24 January 1902, Page 5

THE PREMIER AND MR. ATKINSON.

RIVAL CLAIMS ■• FOB PATRIOTISM.) [BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.] Wellington, Thursday. The newspaper war between Mr. Atkinson I and the Premier is continued with a! trenchant letter from Mr. Atkinson, ; who ; says r . inter alia:—"The Premier's latest at- ; tack -upon me is the most ferocious, and therefore the most flattering, of the three. It tickles my vanity that his endeavours to save the Empire still allow, him time for his endeavours to crush , myself, ; and it affords me additional 'pleasure that his success in the former enterprise is as certain as his failure in the, latter. V''•: He has now made three explanations of his \ exclusion of a political opponent from what purported to be a non-party meeting, and each of them is inconsistent with the other two. He told the : deputation that his only objection was to my moving the resolution, I because that would give it a political colour. £ He told your contemporary that he objected even to my speaking because no politician should speak to it (the implied exception in favour of himself was a detail not worth referring to). He now tells your reporter that I was not fit to be at a patriotic meeting at all, because I -was no patriot. This discovery will be news to the public, and he'frankly refers to it as putting the matter ' in another and proper light.' The previous explanations stand confessed as mere fudge, and the truth is out at last," Mr. 'Atkinson.;. at some length replies categorically to the Premier's assertions, and concludes: "I have dealt with the Premier's two specific charges, and must leave the general question to be decided by less partial judges than him or me. My patriotism and my benevolence have not been on parade so much as his. True patriotism, in my opinion, is a much cleaner, quieter, sincerer, more self-respect-ing, self-sacrificing thing. It is " braver in action than in talk. It is something inspiriting and ennobling, something of which to be proud, and not ashamed, and there is a sufficient reserve of it in the race to take vis safely through the present and even i graver crises."