THE OSTRICH FARM SLANDER

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2323, 3 December 1914, Page 4

THE OSTRICH FARM SLANDER

An attempt was made, at a socalled Labour rally on Monday evening to revive the slander of the Waiuku railway. Mr. 'Moriarty, the gentleman who announced his candidature for the Central seat but after his first meeting suddenly changed his mind and dropped out, is reported to have stated that the plan of , the railway and the ostrich farm, reproduced in our columns of Saturday last, . showed that TiiE Dominion knew nothing about the business. He produced a. map issued by tho Lands and Survey De-' ?artment -alleged to 'be dated uly last, and this map, he stated, "showed a railway going right through tho farm, with a, station marked 'Helvetia' on the centre of it."- Mr. Moriarty's purpose presumably was to suggest either that tho plan published in The Dominion was a faked plan, or that it had been superseded by a later plan. We arc prepared to believe that Mr. Moriarty has been made a -tool of in this matter, and is himself ignorant of the facts. It is'quite incredible that he could be so stupid as to produce this map and parade it as evidence that Vβ knew nothing of the matter, when if ho had troubled to look at our plan he would have seen that- his railway and tho Helvetia station and all the rest , of it were plainly shown, thereon. He would have known had he troubled to make inquiry that the plan which he produced showed the original survey for tho line right through tho centre of the' block. He. would have learned also that that was the line proposed by the previous Government, and not the Massey Government at all. He would further have learned that in April last, on tho recommendation of the State Engineers, this line was' abandoned and a new survey adopted, which missed the ostrich farm altogether (except for one small corner). Moreover, had he called at the Public Works Department he would have seen there tho plan adopted and gazetted on April 2, 1914, showing tho route as given on the plan published in The Dominion. Mr. Moriarty's disclosure is the best possible tribute to the honesty and public-spiritcdncss of tho Prime Minister. The route which Mr. Moriarty said -went right through the property, with a railway station in the . very centre of it, was tho route decided on by a previous Government, and which the Massey Government ' (despito the fact that it bonefited tho farm in which Mr. Massey has a small interest) abandoned on the recommendation of.the Government Engineers in favour of a'route which does not benefit the farm at all. There appears to bo rio end to the misrepresentatTbns by opponents of the Government, bu|fc in;this instance, ae in many others, the only -result has been to show the Government in a more favourable light than previously.