THE FLAXBOURNE INTERVIEW.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7762, 14 March 1905, Page 3

THE FLAXBOURNE INTERVIEW.

t V MK MACDONALDD'S REI'LY. 1 (Fcr Press Association.) j, WELLINGTON, Murch 13. Writing to the Post in reference to the protest made by counsel on behalf of the owners of the Flaxbourne Estate against publishing the interview with the Hon. Mr T. K. Mac- j Donald, one of the assessors in the compensation case, the latter, after X stating that the matters referred to in the interview were well known and freely discussed in Blenheim, says : "The Compensation Court .had been dissolved and might never be revived; its late members wore s absolutely free from any obligation g to be reticent, and Sir George Clif- 0 ford and his partners are also as B free now as they were on the day j the property was proclaimed to s make any arrangement, privately or t otherwise, with the Government for the purchase the property, and j so avoid the necessity of creating a c new Compensation Court. The case t waa in no sense sub judice, and 1 re- c sent the imputation that 1 have in 5 any shape or form transgressed either ( written or unwritten law in such matters. If the owners of the Flax- j bourne Estate think that in accord- ( ing the reporter an interview on' a 1 matter involving a claim against ; the colony of £410,000 I have ex- 1 ceeded my duty as a public man in < stating simply facts, admittedly ] true, I invite them to test the question in the Supreme Court in any j shape they please. In the interview ; referred to 1 deliberately refrained 1 from making comments on certain extraordinary features of the case 1 that it may yet be necessary in the .public interest for me to place before I'ariianfent." Mr Mac Donald also publishes a letter received from claimants' solicitors threatening la lake steps for publishing the interview, and his reply thereto.