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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 72

The Camp, Dunedin, July 16th, 1894 M. J. S. Mackenzie, Esq., Melness, Peninsula

The Camp, Dunedin,

M. J. S. Mackenzie, Esq.,

Melness, Peninsula.

Sir,—

Your letter of the 12th inst., in reply to mine written at Lawrence, I found on Saturday evening on my return home, and I have now to acknowledge it.

The story about your having wired to a friend to see that your name was on the roll I have no doubt is correct so far as it goes, whether my name was mentioned by you, in your communication, as not being on the roll, as I have been informed by an undoubted authority, or, am I to accept your version of the matter? page 5 I may tell you plainly that, after my recent experience of your capacity for stating only part of a truth, I am not prepared to accept your assertion as a fact until I have seen my friend again.

"A lie, that is all a lie, may be met and fought outright,
But a lie that is half a truth, is a harder matter to fight."

And in this direction, and on this basis, have your platform speeches throughout the recent contest been addressed to me, with the object of injuring me in the minds of electors. You even went into my career of private life when you gleefully and continuously referred to my having been the agent of Mr Clarke, of Melbourne; to my having purchased Moa Flat Estate for him; to my having been a promoter and a director of the Colonial Bank; to my having been a promoter and a director of the National Insurance Company, and other companies, in order to show that I could not be a true liberal, or have sympathy with the working man, such was the burden of your song to the electors night after night, and also in the daylight when you bad the opportunity. Why did you not tell the electors the whole truth? That., when I did all this, I was not engaged in politics, nor did I then even contemplate ever taking an active part in them. I was first elected a Member of Parliament in 1876, and the several great political crimes, enumerated by you, had their being long before that period.

And why did Mr Clarke purchase the Moa Flat Estate? When you attempted to show the electors of Tuapeka my political unsoundness—aye, long before I was a candidate—you should have told the whole truth; I purchased Moa Flat Estate more to please the late worthy and patriotic Superintendent of Otago and his Provincial Government than Mr Clarke, the Government, at that time, being in a state of insolvency, and to oblige the Government I went to Victoria at my own expense, and I not only communicated with Mr Clarke, but with other wealthy friends in that page 6 colony. I received nothing for my trouble, nor did I ask anything. But I felt a satisfaction in having, at a critical moment, been of service to this part of the colony, in a time of monetary difficulty, that I was enabled, by knowing how to do it, to place the Government in the position to pay all wages due to working men and other employes.

You also told the electors that you voted against plural voting under Sir George Grey's Bill while I opposed the Bill. Why did you not tell the whole truth and say that when plural voting was abolished by the introduction of the "one man one vote" principle, I voted with the Ayes; and, when you first voted for Sir George Grey's measure you knew precious well that it would not pass. How many voted for the Bill altogether? About half a dozen, at the eve of a General Election, including your illustrious self.

Now, a few words more and I have done. You may take the remarks which I have written to you in any spirit you like, just as the cap fits, you may constitute yourself the sole judge; but, let me assure you, I mean what I have written; and should the result bring estrangement between us I have the satisfaction of knowing that I only did a duty I owed to myself and my good name, by defending my character against your unmanly and scurvy attacks.

Yours obediently,

W. J. M. Larnach.