Mr Stead and Mr Seddon.

Manawatu Herald, 8 February 1902, Page 2

Mr Stead and Mr Seddon.

Dear Sir,—The enclosed letter, which I have forwarded to Mr Seddou, 'explains itself. As the matter has been freely commented on in the press, I tnist that you will give it publicity in your columns. T. Shav Fitchutv.

[Copy of letter sent to Mr Seddon.] January 81, 1902.

Dear Mr Stead’s action in sending you a cheque for £260, the sum your Government paid me for the purchase of 10,000 copies of the “ Review of Reviews for Australasia,” and the comments of the N.Z. press on the incident, seem to justify a few words from me. Mr Stead’s cheque is in no sense a “ return ” of the sum paid by your Government in this transaction. The amount was paid to the “ Review of Reviews for Australasia,” and it “ returns ” nothing. The contract for the purchase of a certain number of copies of our issue of January, 1901, was a straightforward business transaction, entered into and fulfilled honourably on both sides. A* you know, Mr Stead was not mentioned in the matter. He knew nothing about it, and had nothing whatever to do with it. He sends you his cheque now to relieve his own feeling; but it is his own money he sends, and not the money of the company which owns the “Review of Reviews for Australasia.”

In December, 1900, I found it necessary to write a letter to the N.Z. papers, explaining that “ the ‘ Review of Reviews for Australasia' was under distinct ownership and editorship from the English ‘Review of Reviews.’ ” That statement is strictly and absolutely true. The “Review of Reviews for Australasia ” is owned by the “ Review of Reviews Proprietary, Ltd.,” an Association registered under the Victorian Aot. It is true that Mr Stead owns a little over one-half the number of its shares; but he is not a director of the company; he is 12,000 miles distant; and ha has a generous, not to say chivalrous, sense of the absolute freedom which must be accorded to the management of a great magazine like the “ Review of Reviews for Australasia.” - As a master of fact, ho has no more direct and personal share in its management than you have yourself; Even before the change in, the ownership ef the “Review of Reviews for Australasia,” there was, as Mr Stead's letter to you shows, an “absolute liberty ” conceded to its Australasian management; and this, although the views of its editor on the South African War differed toto coelo from those of Mr Stead. lam sure New Zealanders are generous enough to understand and admire the phivalrdus spirit Mr Stead has shown on this point. I may add that on no other terms would the present editor of the “ Review of Reviews for Australasia " and myself be responsible for the magazine. As the matter has supplied the text for much comment in the daily papers, I take the liberty of sending copies of this letter to the press.—l am, sir, yours very truly, T. Shaw Fixohett, Managing Director of the “ Review of Reviews for Australasia.”