A Great Thief.

I understand you do not use such language in this country, but a thief is a thief even if he steals millions. In the Old Country, if a boy steals a turnip out of a field he gets a month's imprisonment, and the same magistrate who sentenced him probably stole the field. (Laughter and applause) That is the logic forced upon us, and we see the irony of it. Since I have been here I have received a very nice welcome, and your press, both Tory and Liberal, has been very kind to me. The only approach to misstatement and scurvy treatment I have received was from the New Zealand Times, your own paper. In the words of some people, "They know not what they do." I am sure if the writer of that article had known what he was writing about he would not have written such utter nonsense: and if his position was one where expert knowledge would command the highest competence in the Old Country, his standard of economics would not be considered equal to that of a 4th-standard child's notion. I am told by this gentleman in a patronising way that I know nothing of economics. Of course, I reply with the retort courteous, that if I know nothing he knows even less.