MOUNT SOMERS BAND OF HOPE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1559, 16 May 1887, Page 2

MOUNT SOMERS BAND OF HOPE.

TO THE EDITOR. Fiß,— "One of the Committee" published m your Saturday's isßue a letter about the " Mount Somcrs Gossip," which m its tenor is misleading, personal, and therefore m bad taste. The writer pretends ignorance of the authorship of •* Mount Somers Gossip." It is no secret at all that I have the honor of being your correspondent under that heading, which is intended to show to any intelligent person that my contributions are merely reports of gossip hero can-dot. As such, they are fair marks for criticism and refutation. Their cliief value is m this, that they give your readers the opportunity of approving the true, of disproving the incorrect. But personal and anonymous attacks are cowardly, and m tin' 8 case the attack is wanton. " Ouo of the Committee " knowß quite well that h.9 does me an injustice m pretending to the public through the general drift of his letter that 1 am hostile to the Band of Hope move ment. This is not S3. Gut there is often a difference between a principle and the method m which it is carried out. The leaders of the Band of Hope movement cannot moie strongly advocate tho principle of general morali'y, which includes that of sobriety than I do daily. As I do not write this letter for the purpose of evoking a controversy, I say nothing about the method m which the temperance movement is or ought to be carried on ; I pass that part of the question to those who may feel inclined to make it a moot point. I conclusion, I beg to inform " One of the Committee " thot m future shall decline to take notice of anonymous publications directed at mo personally. Yours &c, A. BuficnLEß,