IN SELF-DEFENCE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8503, 5 August 1907, Page 6

IN SELF-DEFENCE.

(To the Editor.) Sir,—l have been most severely brought to book by one G. Whyte. According to his statement I have wantonly attempted to wrack the efforts of the . Land, for Settlement League, and with characteristic cowardice sheltered myself under a nome de guerre. * Now, i ir, if you iavour me with the privilege of reprinting that part of my letter which referred to the prosperity of the Land for Settlement League, it may go to prove that I am after all not such a cuttle-fish and traitor to my feliow creatures as Mr G. Whyte depicts me. in the letter referred to by him my statement re the League was as follows: —"I have watched with no small degree of interest the progress of the infant Land for Settlement League. So far the proposals of the League sent forward by them to the Government'are good and well worthy of consideration. The proposals run as follow:—To prevent the monopoly of the Flour-millers' Trust; the lowering of railway carriage on house coal; the cutting up of a ten thous-and-acre block of land in close proximity to Masterton; the workers' home petition, together with some recommendations of alterations in the Workers' Homes Act, all of which reflects credit upon the good intentions of the League." For writing about the League in the above strain I have incurred the opprobrium of Mr Whyte. There is a very old adage, which, I think, Mr Whyte could study with advantage. It refers to a certain class of people rushing into dangers which valiant and wise men avoid. Be "ore Mr Whyte again takes up his critic's pen, 1 would advise him to undergo medical examination, and to abide strictly by the advice given, which I am pretty sure would be to leave nom de plumes alone. They might prove rather "dangerous cattle" for him to lay his whip upon. As to the nom de plume I have made use of, and for which Mr G. Whyle so scathingly rates me, will Mr Whyte openly avow that he bar, never attempted to shelter himsek under a nom de plume? If he is a man, and a white man, he will own up to the truth.—l am, etc. ANTI-BUNKUM. Masterton, August 4th, 1907.