A LAME APOLOGY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1699, 15 March 1913, Page 6

A LAME APOLOGY.

The Christchurch newspaper which said that the meeting addressed by Mr. Massey was packed with policemen, who were presont in so many dozens that one could not drop a pebble without hitting a helmet, has been forced to apologise, and it apologises in a very . characteristic way. Since, however, 'an apology is as difficult to a Radical as candour is, even an inadequate apology coming from such a source is to be approved. We mention the matter, not just to place on record a Radical mis-statement (we should be doing nothing else if we recorded them all), but to notice a very quaint confession. The offending journal is indignant that it should be taken literally! So we shall know in the future that when Mr. Massey is chai'ged with every conceivable offence, and denounced in every mood and tense, we are not to believe his accusers., They must not be taken literally when they say that Mb. Massey . deliberately / robbed the State, or that he packed a meeting with policemen, or .that Me. offered 8000 conscripts to Britain., They must be understood as merely giving yent to their feelings. But, surely, if they must give vent to their feelings, they can find some means which will be less likely than the one they prefer to lead them into embarrassment and ignominious withdrawals. An nonest mistake anyone may make. But deliberate mis-statements which must not be taken 'literally are n'ot so forgiveable. The poverty of the antiReformers' resources in< controversy must be' greater than we had suspected. ,