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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 75

Open Letter to the Hon. John McKenzie. — No. 2

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Open Letter to the Hon. John McKenzie.

No. 2.

Sir

On September 27, by advertisement in the Evening Post, I ventured to ask you to do an act of common justice. You had accused me at the Ward banquet at Invercargill of being employed at a liberal salary to invent lies about the Liberal Party, and I requested you to justify this by selecting one statement of mine during the past four years which you deemed to be a lie, and to submit the same to the Press Gallery. A fortnight passed and no impeachment was made. In lieu thereof you took advantage of the protecting shield of Parliamentary privilege to repeat your Invercargill slander.

Being of a conciliatory disposition, I deprecate any idea that your language has been otherwise than figurative; such as your assurances to the people that the Lands for Settlement estates are reproductive investments of borrowed money; or that your efforts on behalf of the workers in respect to Horowhenua and Bushy Park have been entirely patriotic; or that the real enemies of the country, as you said at Newtown on April 21st, when advocating Mr. Charles Wilson's candidature, were the "Panama Street gang of lawyers, money-lenders, speculators and the parasites who were the humble and obedient tools to do their dirty work," whereas you, John McKenzie, claimed that "This is my country, and who are the pioneers?" I was there, John, note-book in hand, and took the words down. Had you known New Zealand as it was ten or fifteen years before you came to it, I venture to say that you would have done your best to get out of it. I say this because you have displayed such a lamentable want of courage in bringing your accusation of my' alleged "lies" to the test. You came here and found a Colony ready for the reception of people who lacked the adventurous spirit of the heroes of the early forties, and yet you brag of being a "pioneer." Candidly, let me advise you to read the history of the first ten years of New Zealand colonisation, and then ask yourself if the few who ran the risks, and kept their heads above water in those early days, do not deserve as well of the colony as men like you and your colleagues, whose only claims are that you call yourself Liberals and grow rich by that simple device.

When you let you unruly tongue run riot and (as you will remember Horace says) oleum addere eamino—aggravate an evil—it must be patents of you that even a worm will turn when trodden on. It has therefore become a matter of duty with me that unless you nail up one of my alleged lies in the Press room, I shall feel it imperative to write to the numerous Opposition papers which have confidence in my veracity and judgment, that your statements, both at banquets and on the Ministerial bench, are not worthy of credence as they should be. You have invited this second letter from me, and the onus of proof as to our respective claims to be called Liars or otherwise, rests with yourself. This conciliatory course I judge to be preferable to either the aryumentum baculinum, or an appeal à tergo. However, I have a perfectly open mind, and will agree to any of the suggested courses.

I am, &c.,

James Wilkie,

W. H. S. and Co. Print.