THE RIGHT TO REPLY

NZ Truth, Issue 985, 11 October 1924, Page 8

THE RIGHT TO REPLY

"AUSSIE INDIGNATUS" JUSTIFIES

HIS NOM DE PLUME

"Aussie Indignatus": I think I have the right to reply to the amateurish inkstains made by "The Stranger" , under the foetid heading of "Farther Into the Filth." lam wondering what it is this "Stranger" is strange to — and am inclined to imagine the answer more truly to be the truth than to he fiHh, for the first stirs him to a mad lashing of the second — and behold him liberally besplattered with the mire of his own making! I am chicled with (1) muck throwing, (2) slander, (3) protligacy. Had this smellful "stranger" been addressing other than ah anonymous wrltor (anonymously) he would not dared io have used any one of these terms m the course of his wild and unreasoning charges. Regarding his childish remark upon my mentality, that concerns me not one whit, nor does his purported suspicion that 1 have a "twist." As for being a moral bankrupt, that is a charge which no anonymous writer can substantiate against a man ho does not know. But that again does not matter, for I much doubt whether the "stranger" ever had sufficient morals to lead to a bankruptcy. Certainly he is bankrupt of any courtesy, or of any idea of expressing himself m print, excepting by indecently splenetic splutterings. "This alleged Australian" (to use the abusive term of the "stranger") did not defend the Sydney Artists' Ball, nor would he defend any similar affair anywhere, if it were even one-half as bad as reputed. What he did was to emphatically protest at the long-con-tinued policy of many New Zealand newspapers of printing only scandalous and erotic news from Australia, to the entire shutting out of all that is good and great, national, industrial, and domestic, m the way, of news from the great, healthy, and generally clean Commonwealth. And what I said concerning Auckland was the naked truth —and the truth has a particular sting for all hypocrites of the strange species of "The Stranger." He probably knows very well to what ball I referred when I touched on the Auckland affair, and he can get any amount of corroboration any time he wishes it. But apparently to him there can be no wrong done here; he is of the brand which would throw scent into an Auckland cesspit, cover it with, a velvet rug and say how sweetly it ■ smells— and lift the lid off any Sydney rubbish bin and swear it stinks!

The moral is this (since morals appear to appeal to this sweet stranger) : Leave your neighbors' affairs alono and attend strictly to your own. I repeat again that Auckland has no need to go to Sydney for its scandals; it has quite enough here to put into print if it is so minded. Leave all Auckland scandals out, if you like; but leave Sydney's out also. That would only be fair, if "The Stranger" can appreciate the meaning of thaf clean and. simple little word. "Stranger," I handled the muck-rako only to sweeten the muck those you defend spread so liberally under the nostrils of the New Zealand public. Where there was no muck, the rako would have been useless. Yes, your notion (it was not mine) that I sought only to "whitewash the black spot m Sydney Town Hall" was "pathetic"— like the rest of your effete attempt .it vituperating a man who dares' to exW™? 0 ,? 6 ? 1 Views - "There I shine." 11 J 7 * 11 ' ] could not see a fflimpae of brightness m your incoherent spluttering of hypocritical anger. All seemed as dull as ditchwator. Should you ever again attempt to write to the Press, first seek .some lessons m style expression—and repression '