MR. BERRY AND THE "DAILY NEWS."

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 25, 23 February 1909, Page 2

MR. BERRY AND THE "DAILY NEWS."

Air. 'D. Berry (chairman of the Tarauaki Petroleum Company) wrote to our evening contemporary yesterday as follows:—■ "Kir,—l in iny private capacity, and not as chairman of the Tarauaki Petroleum Company, Ltd., which 1 made quite clear was the case, wrote a letter and furnished the 'Daily News' with a lew particulars of the week's work as follow.* below. You can therefore imagine my surprise on receiving the morning's .paper to lind it stated: 'Mr. D. Berry, chairman of the. Tarauaki Petroleum Company, writes to us in connection with the above, and kindly furnishes the following report of last week's operations.'"

Then follows the report we published, ilr. JJ. Berry is- not very explicit. It is bard to understand what he is really driving at. .lie leaves a lot to tin; imagination., the inference being that we have done something dreadfully dishonorable. We are sorry that Jlr. Berry has seen lit to assail us ill this i fashion, because we are Obliged in .selfI defence, to make our position clear ir.nl show where 11 v. Berry himself stands in J regard to tbe'niatter. To explain. Our readers will remember Unit in our petroleum report on JSatunkiv we stated I that-

"from four o'clock on Thursday afternoon to Friday afternoon there was pumped out from the bore nearly ten thousand gallons of oil, with an admixture of saltv water and silt, the 17,0UU-gallon tank being nearly twothirds full as the result of Ibis run with tlie pumps."

We luul heard during Ihc course of l-'it- ' iliiv that tile developments aL the bore luul reached an exceedingly satisfactory stage, and at a late hour on .Friday evcnhig received further word about tho well's success, wlicreujiuii we <lcs|iatclicd a, reporter I<> obtain coulirmatory information. This lie secured from a source, the reliability of which' we could not question, and, as a result, we I imlilislicd the foregoing statement. On .Saturday morning' the facts were denied by the person who gave us the information, and we assumed, on hearing his explanation, that a misunderstanding had arisen in the recounting of the particulars by our informant to the reporter. We anade haste to correct the staleiuent. On Sunday evening, we received a note from Mr, Berry also correcting the statement, together with a

report of the operations at the bore for the past week. We did not publish his correction, for the obvious reason that, as already stated, we had ourselves anticipated him by writing the correction, being just as anxious as he. if nut more so, that we should set ourselves right with our readers ever the matter. Now, Mr. Berry wrote this correction as "chairman of the Taranaki Petroleum

Company," but, on looking up the manuscript, We find that he stated in the first line before the report of the week's operations began that he was writing the report "not as chairman of directors.'' In other words, Mr. Berry wrote the first part of the letter as "Mr. lierry, chairman of directors," but the rest of the letter as "Mr. Berry, a private shareholder." Everyone knows

that Mr. Berry frequently forwards a report of the operations at the bores to both local newspapers, and invariably the words "chairman, oi directors" follow his name, and nothing could have been more natural than that he should have in this case been given his official designation. According to Mr. Berry's letter to the Herald, however, we , should not have stated:—

"Mr. Berry, chairman of directors, ■ writes to us im connection with the ' above and kindly furnishes us with a , report of the past week's operations." . We should have written: — , "Mr. Berry, chairman of directors, writes to us in connection with the above. Mr. lierry, in his private capacity, also furnishes us with a report of the past week's operations." For not having done this we owe an apology to Mr. Lierry, but, at the same lime, we would like to point out that in the eircunisliinces the omission, trilling as it was. does not affect the position one iota. Whether he wrote as Mr. Berry, "chairman of directors,'' or Mr. Berry, ••private shareholder," 1 is of no importance, because the public know very well that Mr. Berry is chairman of the Petroleum Company, that he frequently gives reports to tie papers on the doings at the bores, and that as chairman of directors he has opportunities of obtaining information about the wells that .are denied to any shareholder. We might mention that had it not been for the lateness of the hour and the unavailability of the telephone when we saw Mr. Berry's report wc would have consulted him or some other meni'her of tho directorate about the ■advisability and policy of publishing

tlii' report, which to our mind seemed hardly judicious and likely to have ail eIIVH other than which the writer anticipated. It was only the consideration of throwing as much light as possible. on the matter after our Saturday's paragraph that moved us to insert it at all. Mr. Berry evidently sees now ■that he made an* egregious mistake. ' and wishes to cover it up by suggesting ; dishonorableness on our part We do not intend to discuss the position Mr. ' Berry took up in his letter in respect of the manager of the company. That is another matter—a. very serious one, it is true—and one with which wc may d-eal later, and one in connection with -which we will he surprised if the direc'tors do not take prompt and unequivocal action. Neither do we desire to comment upon Mr. Berry's tasted writing as he did to our contemporary before giving us an opportunity of ventilating his grievance, if one can stretch one s imagination to call it a. grievance. llis action speaks .for it-self, as does that of •our contemporary, who evidently has •no scruples about publishing a letter that most respectably conducted papers •would- have declined to have anything to do with until refused by the newspaper in which the subject matter first appeared. ON THE FOURTH PAGE. ! Bowling. Swimming. Amusements. ! Tuberculosis. District News. Seething India. To Detect Lying. Borough Council. A Motoring Mystery. Romance of a Legacy. Earth's Narrow Escape. Russian Officers and! Civilians. I The New "Perfection" Stove.