MR RIDDIFORD EXPLAINS.

New Zealand Times, Volume LVX, Issue 3094, 3 April 1897, Page 4

MR RIDDIFORD EXPLAINS.

TO THE EDITOR.

Sir, I have read with much interest your article in the Sew Zealand Times of April Ist in reference to the meeting of the Wellington Agricultural and Pastoral Association under the title “ The Frozen Meat Industry.” I regret my absence from that meeting, and therefore am not in a position, except from hearsay and from what I have seen in the columns of the press, to absolutely deny the statement in tho article in question that “ there appeared to be a disposition on the part of some of those present to play to tho Opposition gallery,” ..... and that it was not “a fitting occasion on which to get off ill-natured and ill-timed remarks Those who of-

fended will understand the reference.” From the context a casual reader would infer that Mr Pharazyn was the subject of your criticism, and he alone tho cause of your comment. I must leave Mr Pharazyn to repudiate this or not, as be may think fit, but, in passing, I may say, after having read your report of Mr Pharazyn’s speech. I am convinced that the same is ahsolutely free of any “ party ” bias. The exception he takes is to Government interference, and that exception would apply so far as the Government is concerned equally to those who may bo “in” in the future quite as much as to those who “are in at the present. Further, I fail to see in his speech any attempt at an “ ill-timed remark” in this connection, and therefore think it right to Mr Pharazyn to look further for someone who should share the responsibility of the burden your remarks cast on him. And in doing so I need only look at myself, as from what I hear it is evident to me that a letter, or, at any rate, a part of it, that I addressed to the president and which he read to the meeting, was treated by the meeting as a jest rather than as a proposition mad© really in tho interests of the Association. And herein has a wrong been done me. The part of tho letter I allude to is that having reference to the election of the Hon Mr Seddon to one of tho vacant offices of either president or vice-president. It was my wish and my proposition 12 months ago to ask Mr Seddon to accept the position as president of this Association, and it was only in deference to the gentleman who was both entitled to, and deserving of, the office at the expiration of his year as vice-president that the matter was not brought officially before the members. This year the position was changed; I had received tho honour of being elected a vice-president and it had come to my knowledge that at the annual meeting I might expect to be proposed as president. There was thus now a fitting opportunity for mo to formally bring forward what I considered would be not only a beneficial proposition as far as the Association was concerned, but a tribute of regard due undoubtedly a gentleman who, although I may differ from him in party politics, is capable of properly filling the position j and had it not been for most urgent private business I should have been personally present to press my motion instead of having to rely on a hurriedly written letter sent from my station on the East Coast, with an apology for my absence from the meeting. Trusting that this letter will thoroughly free your mind from the idea that my suggestion in question was made in any carping or jesting mood, —I am, <kc., E. J. UIDDIFORD* Lower Hutt> April 2nd, 1897 v