THE "BLACK PAMPHLET."

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10283, 11 July 1911, Page 5

THE "BLACK PAMPHLET."

AND HON. G. FOWLDS. A DISCLAIMER. By Telegraph — Press Association. ROTORUA, Last Night. The Hon. George Fowlds, Minister for Education, who is at present in Rotorua taking the baths for a slight attack of rheumatism, .was seen by a reporter this evening in reference to a paragraph that appeared on the sth inst in a Southern newspaper, as follows: —"The Hon." Geo. Fowlds has reiterated on a public platform in Otag > that Mr Massey, Leader of the Opposition, fathered the unauthorised biography of Sir Joseph Ward." Mr Fowlds remarked that it seemed to him that, at the present time, Opposition speakers and newspapers were prepared to go to any lengths in the matter of misstatements. Regarding the particular statement referred to, it was without the slightest foundation in fact. On the contrary, what he-did say in effect, when speaking on the matter, was that he had never heard Mr Massey blamed personally for having had anything to do with the inception or circulation of the "Black Pamphlet," but that the indictment against the Opposition generally was that, whilst they knew it was in circulation, and that their party was likely to benefit from it, they took no steps to condemn it. "That was," Mr Fowlds added, "quite a different statement from the one now being circulated by the Opposition newspapers."