MR. LEE'S BOOK

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 83, 5 October 1938, Page 15

MR. LEE'S BOOK

REPLY TO CRITICS

MISREPRESENTATION

ALLEGED

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

TAIHAPE, This Day.

Mr. J. A. Lee, Under-Secretary in Charge of Housing, addressed an enthusiastic meeting, at the conclusion of which a vote of thanks- to the speaker and confidence in the Labour Party and in the Hon. F. Langstone as candidate for the electorate, was passed. Mr. Lee was vigorously chered.

Mr. Lee quoted extensively from his book on Socialism in New Zealand to support his contention that'he had been misrepresented by quotations separated from their context. He said Mr. Mazengarb had alleged that he stated criminals had influenced the qharacter of NeW Zealand. Mr. Lee read a passage- from the book, in which he pointed out that he had merely quoted a reference by Charles Darwin to runaway convicts and run-away sailors before the settlers came. He had then referred to vagabonds and adventurers, but vagabonds and adventurers were not criminals. Mr. Lee added that this reference had appeared on only one page of nearly 300 pages of the book. The remainder of the pages had been devoted, to a. eulogy of those who had built up the Dominion, its pensions, and other social services.