MR. LEE'S BOOK

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 82, 4 October 1938, Page 7

MR. LEE'S BOOK

"SPILLED THE BEANS"

MR. MAZENGARB'S CLAIM

"Mr. J. A. Lee has spilled the beans properly by the premature publication of his book on Socialism in New, Zealand," said Mr. O. C Mazengarb,' National candidate for Wellington Suburbs, at Taita last evening. "He appears now to be most anxious to stifle criticism of that book by writing me a letter containing a veiled hint of the possibility of a libel action. That sort of device does not cause me any anxiety, because I am always sure of my ground before I speak." A voice: Why don't you leave Mr. Lee alone? Mr. Mazengarb: Because he is the One man in the Labour Party who has been frank enough to tell us the steps that will be taken to bring about a complete state of Socialism in New Zealand. The audience then listened quietly while Mr. Mazengarb read the following letters that had passed between him and Mr. Lee that afternoon:— Dear Mr. Mazengarb,—l note that you are reported as having said that I stated that criminals had influenced the character of New Zealand. This " may be a wrong report. I am departing on tour again today before I can get an opinion as to whether the statement in that form is actionable or not, but, obviously, it is.a malicious falsehood in its present form. Vagabonds and adventurers of the types who came to our goldfields were not necessarily criminals. ■ I think that in fairness to myself you owe -me a correction. —Yours faithfully, JOHN A. LEE.. Mr. Mazengarb replied as follows:— Dear Mr. Lee,—l am writing: this reply to your letter of today so that you may have it before you leave on tour. The Press has correctly reported What I said about your book. Possibly you have forgotten what you wrote, and so I quote the exact pas sage as it appears on page 15, in which you will notice that the printer has misspelt the word "hordes":— "Runaway convicts and runaway sailors were so numerous at one of his ports of call as to provoke Charles Darwin into recording that that port seemed to harbour the scum of the earth. Settlers arrived later, but the discovery of gold brought further hoards of adventurers and vagabonds, and although a host of these departed with the collapse of the gold boom they must have left their mark on New Zealand character." If you have any doubt about the correctness of the quotation, I will be pleased to send you a photograph of the page from which the above is taken. Far from my owing a correction to you. I am convinced that you owe one "to the people of New Zealand.