MR LAURENSON'S LOOSE STATEMENTS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIII, Issue 13, 13 May 1912, Page 4

MR LAURENSON'S LOOSE STATEMENTS.

[f anything further were needed to emphasise our contention that the Hon. Geo. Laurenson should be more careful in his platform utterance:-, it is the rather characteristic letter From him, which we publish in another column of this issue. .However much he may attempt to cloud the issue, the fact remains that he made a definite statement with reference to Taraiiaki on Wednesday night' wnen speaking at Stratford, which we quite properly characterised as "loose," and on Thursday evening, speaking at Toko, 3.1 i Laurenson said he was not referring to Taranaki at all. Sir Laurenson now writes a "letter in which he entirely overlooks the Fact that the question is not one of politics, but merely of loose statements and their bad effect. We should think that a Minister of the Crown ought at least to be moderately accurate, but Mr Laurenson's letter simply bristles with loose statements. In the first place, we were not having an "unfair dig' at Mr Laurenson. in the next place, the "irritation" he affects to perceive does not' exist: he has .mistaken mild surprise and a little sorrow that a Minister of the Crown should be in such a position as the lion, gentleman places himself, for the feeling he alleges. Further, his stated facts are altogether misleading, and his "data" apparently built up to suit his purpose. Is Mr Laurenson aware that nearly every newspaper in Taranaki maintains the same political attitude it did fifteen or twenty years ago. and further, that, in most instance?, where the newspaper has been in existence that long the proprietary is the same as it then was? How then can Taranaki be a "gross" example of the Opposition "buying up" the newspapers of this country P