"THE PUBLIC IN THE PILLORY.”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20450, 3 July 1928, Page 5

"THE PUBLIC IN THE PILLORY.”

THE PRIMATE IN REPLY. TO THE EDJTOB. SIR,—Mv attention has been called to the leading article in your valuable paper of June 25, entitled " The Public m the Pillory," based apparently upon something which I am supposed to have said in an address to the Council of Christian Congregations at Auckland. For obvious reasons, as a public man. I have retained mv manuscript of the address ■which I gave on "Civic Responsibility, and I ask for proof of your statement. "Comparatively," he says, " New Zealand leads the world in lunacy, suicides, prison populatidn, divorces and illicit first conceptions.*' You apparently have accepted certain scare headlines or paragraphs from a newspaper published in which may have afforded good " copy, but are grossly misleading. I cannot suppose that the statement is intentionally and wilfully untrue, although it is absolutely untrue. I prefer to think that it is the outcome of the zeal of an inexperienced reporter. In my address I made no comparison in any instance with the rest of the "'world,'' and merely quoted certain statistics derived from Government returns and reports to emphasise the need for the churches and the public generally to give heed to the danger of self-complaceucy and endeavour to secure the best men and women possible for their parliamentary representatives. I stand by every word that I paid in.that address, and have nothing to alter or withdraw, in spite of the garbled report of it.on which you have evidently based your leader. —I am, etc., A'. W, New Zealand. , Bishopscourt, Auckland, June 29. [Our report, from which the passage quoted by Archbishop Averill was an extract, was supplied by our correspondent in Auckland and was published by us in the belief that it was fair and accurate. Concerning the,particular matter of comparative records, the Primate's address is reported in the Auckland Star as follows:—"We have only to look over our criminal records compared with those of other countries to learn what really moral people we are. He quoted statistics to show that New Zealand had 402 people out of every 100,000 in mental hospitals, while in England and Wales it was 364, and in America 241 per 100,000. New_ Zealand also had a high record for suicides, and in divorces was higher than Australia." The context shows that the allusion to the "really moral people" we are was ironical.—Ed. O.D.T.]