AN APPEAL GRIEVANCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 February 1917, Page 2

AN APPEAL GRIEVANCE.

To the Editqr. Sir, —I bog'to draw your attention to the libellous statements that have appeared in the papers re my son's appeal. The two farms are not adjoining, nor neighboring, but a mile apart with a 400-feet hill between. There are several farmers both nearer and better able to render Mr. Sharpe. assistance, but I don't think any of them could undertake the management of his farm. In my case it would be an absolute impossibility and you will see that the whole slander rests upon a falsehood. I have two sons at the front, one having returned to the front after being knocked out ■at Gallipoli. Harold would have volunteered for service when he was 20 years old but would not leave his invalid mother and father. lie hate striven for 10 yeaft in subduing the bush, and are surely entitled to what we have earned. Neither Mrs. Kitchingman nor myself have visited New Plymouth more than four times in 1G years except when carried to the hospital. We are the last who should have been brutally slandered. Do the people of Taranaki realise that the taking of all active men from the dairy farms means the complete possession of the province by noxious weeds? Harold has been working M hours a day, and yet the land for winter feed has not been ploughed for want of labor. In conclusion I beg to state that I am aware of the existence of the law of libel. —I "am, etc., H. KITCHINGMAN. P.S.—Since writing the above I have been informed that you have taken up the cause of the farmers.—H.K.