SIR WALTER BUCHANAN EXPLAINS.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLV, Issue 11960, 11 December 1919, Page 6

SIR WALTER BUCHANAN EXPLAINS.

(Published by Arrangement).

To tbs Editor N.Z, Times. SIR, —I have read with interest in your issue of yesterday the abomin - able tissue of misrepresentation which 'ou profess to base upon the speeches of Mr Matheson, one of the candidates for the Masterton seat. If you have any sense of justice or fair piay you will reproduce letters from myself and from Mr Syfees’ committee, which have already ap : peared in the Age. Your readers will then be able to realise the molehill on which you have attempted to raise the mountain of abuse and spleen which you have poured upon myself. W. C. BUCHANAN. (Enclosures). (From Wairarapa Ago, December Ist) SIR, —I seldom enter into newspaper controversy. It is apt to become long drawn out and tiresome. But the issues involved ain the contest for the Masterton seat are so allimportant that public duty compels me to correct, without delay, the misrepresentations contained in Mr Matheson’s speech, as reported in the Age of Saturday. Mr Matheson, in effect, states that in June last many people were of opinion that Mr Sykes would not re-contest the Masterton seat, but that on my return, latd in September, he announced a change of .intention, and •that ho would again contest the seat. How simply and artfully put to prejudice the position of Mr Sykes by suggesting that he is merely my nominee, and has no tangible support in the electorate which lie has so honourably represented for many years. Fortunately, I can at once prove, by simple recital of the facts that have come within .‘my own personal knowledge, that Mr Matheson’vS insinuations are absolutely groundless. The short story is as follows ;—Shortly after my arrival, Mr Sykes informed me that he did not intend to stand tor election, and & naturally expressed my regret, hut some little time afterwards, when he further informed me that he felt it his duty, on behalf of his wife and family, to give up politics, I did not feel justified in urging him to the coutary. Still later, he called his old committee together to inform thorn of his retirement, but, as he told me a few days afterwards, they induced him to change his mind, and again enter the tray. I stated all this in much greater detail, in Mr Matheson’s committee room, before himself and other residents, and yet he has the hardihooocl —to use no stronger term —to put upon my shoulders the repsonsibility winch I have already proved rests upon Mr Sykes and his committee. They, I know, will entirely corroborate what I have stated. The most important point of all, however, is the danger with which we are now confronted, through the failure on the part of th-i two representative committees to agree as to which of the two candidates should stand down, thereby securing that the seat should not be captured by the extreme Labour candidate. Obviously, the one most important duty now remaining to every elector is to ascertain, in the most careful manner possible, which of the two candidates is most likely to secure the greatest number of votes, and to act accordingly, in order to prevent a calamity.—l am, etc , W. O. BUCHANAN.

Masterton, November 29, 1919. (From Wairarapa Age, December 2.) SIR, ■•—My committee endorse Sir Walter Buchanan’s remarks regarding the coming into the field of Mr G. K. Sykes. It was entirely due to the persuasion used by his old committee and supporters that he (Mr Sykes) was induced to again contest the Masterton seat. We know nothing of Sir Walter Buchanan or any other outsider in the matter.—l am, etc., J. B. McKENZIE, Chairman of Mr Sykes’ Committee, Masterton, December 1, 1919.