MR. MACAUSTER REPLIES.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1520, 16 August 1912, Page 4

MR. MACAUSTER REPLIES.

RECENT PASSAGE IN PARLIAMENT. (By Telotranh.-PrcßS Aesoclatlon-I Invercargill, August 15. air. Macalister was interviewed to-day re certain statements in Parliament, and said: I have nothing more to add to too statement winch 1 have already made. Lv'tufi lr- . lMhw '? E0<"1 enough (0 baj that ho casts no roliection on me, vet ho declines to accept my word that the restriction referred to was not imposed at my instance, and a letter to Mr. Waldcgrayo (late Under-Secretary to the Dcpartment of. Justice), of July 15 1910 shows that all that 1 expected was that tho Crown work, which had been going to Mr. T. M. Macdonald's office, would pass to mine.' When it was intimated to mo by the district manager of the Department hcre.thiit the whole of tho work of-the Department was to come to my ofheo I expressed surprise, and remarked that I did not expect that. I think that tho oilicor referred .to will remember my making that remark. How the restriction camo to bo imposed I liavo no knowledge. Ido not kiiow what is, or is not, 'conceivablo to tho Hon. Mr. Fisher, but tho suggestion that tho restriction referred to must havo been imposed at my instance in order to score a point oyer all tho members of tho legal profession at Invercargill' is a reflection on me moro objectionable than Mr. Fisher apparently realises, and 'one which is quite unworthy of a Minister of the Crown. I havo spoken to all tho solicitors who wero affected by tho restriction, of the business to the Crown Solicitor's office,; and they all assure mo that they aro quite satisfied that the restriction referred to was not imposed at my instanco or at my request. "This assurance is good enough, for me."