THE PREMIER AND THE FOURTH CONTINGENT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11809, 11 August 1900, Page 8

THE PREMIER AND THE FOURTH CONTINGENT.

(Feom Otjk- Own Cobbespondent.)

WELLINGTON, August 10.

The Premier made a reference to-night" to a statement published by Mr-Win. Hutchison that he (the Premier) had prevented Mr Wm. Hutchison going to South Africa as a member of the fourth contingent, although he had been sworn in at/ Forbury Park, and had em-barked-'on the Monowai as a trooper. The Premier said that absolutely unfounded statements had been made against him in the press. . The statements were absolutely incorrect and unwarranted, and did him a great injustice. The circumstances in connection with the matter were as follows: —Mr Saunders, of the Lyttelton Times, communicated with him, and asked him whether he would permit a correspondent to go with the fourth contingent. He (the Premier) was told who the .correspondent was. He was informed that some other papers were joining in, and would assist in defraying the expenses. He assented, and he never heard anything more until the steamer Monowai was going away. Then he was told that Mr Hutchison had been refused permission to go on board the ship, and he said there must be some mistake, as he had agreed that Mr Hutchison was to go, as a correspondent. Mr Hutchison went on board. He was never enrolled as a member of the fourth contingent. If he (the Premier) was to be blamed, it was because he arranged that Mr Hutchison should go as a correspondent. When lie was told that Mr Hutchison had been sworn in, he said he could not understand it. Those who were sworn in must have been selected by one of the committees. Mr Hutchison said: " "Well, they accepted me." He said: "You have not been enrolled." He made inquiries, and found out that Mr Hutchison had never been enrolled. He said: " The best thing to do is this: I will permit you to go as far as Albany. If your people pay your passage, I will cable that you are to go on by the steamer to South Africa." He then communicated to Mr Saunders -.*• hat he had done, and asked him to meet what had ■- been agreed upon. Mr Saunders paid £20, and he (the Premier) cabled to Albany, and Mr Hutchison *vent on from there with the contingent. The letter which he (the Premier) wrote to Major Francis was written owing to his (the Premier's) knowledge of the circumstances. From that day to the present time he had never been able to trace how it was that Mr Hutohison came to be sworn in. How it was done, he did not know. It .was not done at the instance of either the Southland, Dunedin, or Canterbury committees. It seemed to him that the explanation was this: ■ that to get out of paying the passage money and with a view of placing Mr Hutchison in a position which would be better for him as a correspondent, something was done in Dunedin behind his (the Premier's) back to have Mr Hutchison sworn in. Some of those who had engaged to pay part of Mr Hutchison's passage money backed, out of it, and Mr Saunders had to bear the brunt. At the end of the voyage Mr Hutchison claimed his discharge. He had, it might be mentioned, been treated very well on board the steamer. He was, for instance, allowed to mess with the officers all the way from New Zealand to South Africa., He could not complain of his treatment. Major Francis refused Mr Hutchison his discharge on •the ground that the latter had never been part of the contingent. Then Mr Hutchison applied to Colonel Nowall, who decided that he was not one of the. contingent, and the matter was settled. The statements which had now been published about his (the Premier's) connection with the matter formed the reward he got for being generous. The facts of the case must have been known to some of the newspapers concerned. The treatment to which he had been subjected was enough to make a man say " I will never do anyone a good turn again." Mr Barclay asked what the words in Major Francis's letter meant to the effect that, according to instructions from the Defence Minister, Hutchison was not to accompany the others as a member of the contingent under his (Francis) ' command. The Premier replied that in the • first place Hutchison was not on the roll, and iin the second place he had arranged to go as a co^reaDondent. His appearance as a menv

ber of the contingent all happened within 24----hours of the departure of the steamer. He had not been trained with the men, and had undergone no shooting nor riding test. Major Francis had decided to take him as his orderly, but a newspaper correspondent as an orderly was a wrong thing. In conclusion, the Premier (referring no doubt to the Bun Tuck episode) said the greatest injury ever done to him had been clone by one of the Hutchison family. Yet he had approved of ono brother as a magistrate, of another relative getting into the civil service,'and in this case he was going out of his way to let another brother go as a correspondent. Having done all that he did not think he deserved this at the hands of the father. ' .