WHO IS THE SCOUNDREL?

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 135, 29 November 1911, Page 6

WHO IS THE SCOUNDREL?

MR. McNAB AND THE MOKAU. MR. McNAB ISSUES A CHALLENGE TO MK. MASSEY. Palmerston North, Monday. Mr. McNab, speaking at a crowded meeting in the Opera House this evenings referred to Mr. Massey's statement at his meeting here re the Mokau. affair. The speaker said he did not quite know where Mr. Massey was regarding the Mokau. But he had made and abandoned so many charges. But referring j to his statement at a meeting here that he (Mr. MoXab) had gone into the Mokau Company in the middle of January and that the Order-in-Council was not issued until the middle of March, two months later, Mr. McNab said the innuendo was that the Government was induced by his being in the company to issue this Order. Mr. Massey had not told them that the Government had decided on December 9 to grant this Order-in-Council. It was six weeks before he (Mr. McNab) was approached by anyone in connection with entering the company. If this innuendo were ' that ho used his influence with the Ministry to get that transaction put through, if that were Mr. Massey's suggestion, he (Mr. McNab) said it was an ilnfamous suggestion against himself. ; "Mr. Massey might," continued Mr. McNab, "be in the habit of making these statements about public men of this country. If that is Mr. Massey's innuendo—and if it is I am not fit to represent any person in the Councils of ,this- country or any other part of the world, because lam a scoundreoV—if that is true, and I say if that innuendo is untrue, the man that made it is in the same -way himself a scoundrel for making it.—-(Prolonged applause and cheers).— I am prepared to do this, if that is the innuendo—l am prepared to go before any Court that can be appointed to examine the charge, Mr. Massey to prove the innuendo and I to defend. If he prove the innuendo, I will go out of polities of this country for ever, and if he does not prove that, then he goes out of politics of this country for ever.— (Great applause) .—Let it foe sudden death for the scoundTel whoever be is.