TO THE EDITORS OF THE AKAROA MAIL.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 2, Issue 108, 31 July 1877, Page 3

TO THE EDITORS OF THE AKAROA MAIL.

Sib, —With all due respect to you and your correspondent, A.K.H., I cannot, in the first place, understand the drift of A.K.H's letter. I know where Folkstone is, and from the dim recesses of my memory, I fancy I recall some remembrances of Folkestone, Purchas and Co. But what has this to do with Akaroa ; we have not so far brought religious controversy into our social system here, and I think that in a small community such as ours, these matters should be left in abeyance, remembering that " evil be to him who evil thinks." This is not the only fault I have the conceit to find with A.K.H's letter, for being (as I believe) a Bachelor of Arts, A.K.H. should be better acquainted with the English language than to write as he has done. Independent of the folly of introducing the subject of religious matters into a mixed community such as ours, the grammar, for an usher, is simply execrable. To take the word surplus (sic) I used at school to spell it " surplice." Another instance. "That of the chalice or of the offertory arms is illegal." Should it not be " was illegal ;" and if so, why ? and how so ; does he mean the chalice was illegal, or the offertory V Then again, " in the case of Mr. Mackonocfrie, it was held that prostration, or kneeling during the prayer of consecration, was likewise illegal, as well as lighted candles and incense." According to this dictum, prostration or kneeling was candles or incense. In the next instance, to follow A.K.H., we find that mixing water with wine was not only illegal, but was tippets, stoles, &c. "Two great sections," forsooth ! what does A.K.H. mean? Heathen Chinee, and Mussulmans I presume. Finally, I would suggest to your correspondent to make an application for the premium of fifty pounds to the man who is best able to mind his own business.—Yours, &c, A. A. OXON.