A VILE SLANDER.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1142, 1 June 1911, Page 5

A VILE SLANDER.

NAILED DOWN.

Addressing tlio electors of Welline-rofl last evening, Mr. F. M. B. Fisher, M.F., stated that on returning from Australia a fortnight ago ho learned that certain stories reflecting upon his character hnd been circulated in his absence. He did not propose to repeat these rumours. It might suffice that in his absence it had. been laid at his door that he had committed such offences as narrowly to escape coining under the Criminal (.'ode. Endeavouring to traco these slanders to their source, ho had communicated with a number of people, who were supposed to know something about the matter, each of whom assured him that they know nothing of it. The rumours had come to the ears of Mr. Massey in Auckland, and Mr. .las. Allen in Duncdin, biut all efforts to trace them to their source proved ineffectual. In turn, ue bad npproached Mr. liapley, tho Government organiser, and Mr. A. Myers, M.l\, of Auckland, tho "Now Zealand Times," and others whose names had been mentioned to him as knowing something o£ tho rumour. Each person approached assured the speaker that lie knew nothing of tho stories or their source. Ono of the stories circulated, Mr. Fisher remarked, was that while in Australia ho had absolutely relapsed, audi knocked about in a condition— A voice: "On the ramie?" Mr. Fisher; "On (ho razzlcl And that nothing would induce m,e to come back from Australia." • Reiterating that ho had made' every, endeavour to trace these scandals to their source, but unavailingly, Mr. Fisher remarked that they should be worth thousands of pounds in the Supremo Court. He would halve the amount with! anyone who could put him on the track of the person who started them or who circulated them, and the other half could, go to tho Hospital. "There is going to be a fight in Wellington Central," continued the member, 'and lam goin» to be in it. (Applause.) Tho persons who started these rumours made the colossal error of starting so early that I shall-bo able to catch them up before November. No public man was ever beaten by such insidious,, beastly slanders, though they arc enough to drive a man out of public life altogether in sheer disgust." ' Speaking with evident feeling, Mr. Fisher declared that his first instinct had been to "pass right out altogether." Had it not been for tho support of a great ninny of his own personal friends he would have been. oTft of it that day. In addition to the customary vote of thanks and confidence passed at tho close of Mr. Fisher's address, tho following motion was moved by Mr. J. Chapman:—"Tins meeting deprecates > tho methods of political fighting by thoso interested in damaging the reputation, of a public man by vile and malicious slander, and congratulates Mr. Fisher upon the open and manly way in which he has dealt with the rumours that have been circulated with the object of preventing his re-election to Parliament." The Hov. Win. Thompson, a member of the audience, contended that tho resolution should be much stronger. Tho meeting should express its bcl'icf that Mr. lusher was an entirely straightfor. ward and honourable man 'in every wny. An nddition in theso terms having been made to tho motion, it was carried by acclamation, amid an ovation 'of cheers mid applause that continued for some time.