MISREPRESENTATION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXV, Issue 184, 6 August 1903, Page 4

MISREPRESENTATION.

( Napier Telegraph.) There is in the New Plymouth district aMr E. Maxwell. He objects to New Plymouth trying fo make a harbour for itself, and the other day he addressed a meeting of ratepayers to that effect. la this, of course, he is quite within his rights, especially as he boasted at the meeting that he was fully informed upon what he spoke of. But if his information about New Plymouth was as trustworthy as that which he was kind enough to say of Napier, we imagine that those who listened to him did not learn much. He is reported as follows" The Insurance Companies would be against such risks, and he instanced Napier as an example. Napier got a liner in the other day, the first he believed, and she was wrecked. Mr Bell's report never referred to ocean trade steamers, but only probabla trade on the coast. He said the Napier harbour was a complete failure as far as ocean shipping was concerned, in fact, Mr Maxwell kept holding Napier up as ' a shocking example' of an artificial port." We personally do not object ta Mr E. Maxwell (whoever he may be) thinking, even erroneously thinking, that the port of Napier is a shocking example. We do not object to him saying the thing that is not true about our port, to prejudice the case of those who wish to improve New Plymouth. That sort of thing is for him to reconcile with his professions of knowledge and the standard of fait play which he may have erected for his own guidance. But perhaps the Napier Harbour Board may rightly object to false statements about the Niwaru mishap being publicly made, and from that point of view we think the Board might do worse than formally communicate with tEe New Plymouth Board, setting out a few facts, and thus giving the members material with which to convict their reckless critic of the baseless character of his assertions in regard to Napier.