THE “OBSCURE CONTRIBUTOR."

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 7019, 6 January 1910, Page 9

THE “OBSCURE CONTRIBUTOR."

(To tho Editor “N.Z. Times.*') Sir,—ln your issue of to-day you devote nearly a full column of your space to dealing with what you term tho "rubbish" contributed by an “obscure contributor” to the London “Spectator,” tho said ” obscure contributor ” being myself. Now, air, you know my native modesty. You know that I have not travelled through Siberia, nor sought notoriety as a penny-a-liner. Therefore I must be “obscure.” As my contribution to the “Spectator” was merely ” rubbish,” it is rather a pity that the Melbourne “Argus” and tho “New Zealand Times” should have made their columns a receptacle for it. even in part. Alter quoting a portion of my letter—it appears to be a habit peculiar to yourself to publish only what suits you—you say, “if any greater fustian than this has ever bean written we cannot recall having read it.” If you do not read your own paper, sir, 1 can forgive your lapse of memory. I do not expect the “New Zealand Times" to have any respect for the assertions of those who have the temerity to tell the truth, therefore I am concerned at your having devoted so much .space to xny contribution. You head your article “More Misrepresentation,” and you justify the heading by your references to my letter. In that letter I stated that many State tenants have felt compelled to record their > votes from time to time against their own convictions. You make it appear that I said State tenants had “been compelled” to vote against their convictions. This ia a sample, of the “misrepresentation.” i again assert, and am prepared to prove absolutely, that State tenants have “felt compelled” to vote against their own convictions. I should be sorry, of course, if such proof should “irretrievably wreck the political party in power,” or should unnecessarily wound the feelings of the “New Zealand Times.” I would suggest that, instead of .sending emissaries round the world, you get out into tho country yourself and gain just a little knowledge of New Zealand as it is under Liberal land laws. You may then bo in a''better position to judge of the value of the assertions of even “obscure” contributors.—l am, etc., ARTHUR H. VILE. January sth, 1910.