Double up

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 7, Issue 360, 30 October 1990, Page 7

Double up

• Readers of last week's Ruapehu Bulletin may have noticed what would have seemed an extra-ordinary coincidence - a word-for-word duplication of two letters to the Editor on page 4. Alongside each other in columns 6 and 7 the same paragraphs appear. This was no mistake on

the part of the newspaper staff, duplication or transposition of copy, but was a direct 'rip-off by the Social Credit candidate for King Country, Merv Williamson. Two weeks earlier I had sent out 20 letters to all newspapers and magazines in New Zealand with a circulation of more than 10,000 and these included the NZ Herald, the Waikato Times, the NZ Listener and the Taranaki Daily News, all within the distribution area of Te Kuiti where Mr Merv Williamson lives. My letter was reproduced in all the above newspapers and it

is obvious that Mr Merv Williamson or one of his supporters saw this letter, which advocated voting for one of the minor parties, and decided that it would be useful in promoting such an idea on behalf of his political party. Little did he think that my letter and his copy would appear in two adjoining columns of the Ruapehu Bulletin. But let me re-assure Mr Williamson that I do not intend to sue for breach of copyright. Rather I would like to think that "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!" However he could acknowledge the original source.

Dennis

Baytagh