THE LIQUOR CONTROVERSY.

Wairarapa Age, 19 November 1919, Page 5

THE LIQUOR CONTROVERSY.

{To the Editor.) Sir—Qor old friend, Mr John Hannah, of Carlton House, has-adopted a new role, and it is to be hoped that he will emerge from the encounter with Mr. W. J. Tennent with his reputation for sagaei-y less battered than it was after the gruelling it sustained at the hands of Captain W« H. Hawkins in the Opera House a few weeks ago. The High Olympic Gods «must be smiling at the spectacle of Mr. John Hannah, of Carlton House, as self-appoin:ed champion of dead and living New Zealand statesmen, and if Mr. Massey, Sir Joseph Ward, and the friends of the late Mr. Richard Seddon should- happen, by some remote possibility, to hear that Mr. Hannah was the custodian of their respective reputations, and if they should, at the same time, learn of the neat and effective manner in wfaicfc Captain TV. H. Hawkins disposed of Mr, Hannah's somewhat heavy attempts at'irfterruption at the Opera House meeting, one is inclined to think that their heartfelt cry would he "save ub from our friends." It will be quite clear to anyone of average intelligence that the reputation of the statesmen named was not. called in question, and if Mr* John Hannah cannot understand the difference between a general indictment of .governments such as being indulged in to-day all over New Zealand, and an attack on the personal of statesmen, such as quite obvidusly was never intended, then he evidently has a fair amount to learn of the rudiments of newspaper controversy. As to Mr. Hannah's mock heroics, your readers will be ' able to estimate their true value, .•. and hia toy cannon, charged with ' -papear bullets, will hit nothing.—l am, etc., ?EO BONO PUBLICO. •