LETTERS TO MY FRIENDS.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 4, Issue 395, 18 May 1880, Page 3

LETTERS TO MY FRIENDS.

Per favor of the Akaroa Mail. g lß) —For richness of tone and volume of sound, "Outsider's" impartial letter in vindication of our "respected Mayor's zeal, integrity, and manly independence," is beyond all praise. And, having had the pleaeure of knowing him for over onethird of a century, I feel called on to substantiate all "Outsider" says, more especially as " a kindly word can never leave a sting behind." Was it not our present Mayor who first etarted a flour mill, long before the pilgrims of the plains knew the Jand ? Was it not him who first started a " Bmiddy " in the land, yea before many of them ere puked on their bib. I, therefore knowing his modesty, claim for him as being the father of these two great industries that ha? spread throughout the length and breadth of the land. Did he not aleo, with " manly zeal," represent us in the Provincial Council ? And who has not, at the bar of Bacchus, beard him say what he had done on the Public Works Committee? "Zeal and fatherly care here is beyond dispute. _ I now come to bis great (services on the Eoad Board—deny it who can. I say lie was the father of the Road Board, and he has left his paternal mark .on it that it takes a pride in to this day. When Chairman of that Board, did he not raise by rates £240 per year, and pay his Clerk £300 per year, who manfully spent it at the bar of Bacchus, with the Chairman's name over the door ? Who will attempt to deny the fatherly care and zeal shown here ? Yea, he has even reclaimed the wilderness and tamed the " roaring lien." Our " respected Mayor's" services nre co recent and well known, it requires very little from me to prove his zeal. Since he has been in the Council, did be not wish to extend his " fatherly care " by trying to enlarge the Borough and extend his paternal wings over some two hundred acres of suburban land ? Did he not also pass a by-law prohibiting the driving of stock through the city during certain hours? Yea, his fatherly care was ehown here to the rißing generation ; let the stock owners carry their cattle and sheep over the town in a balloon. Has bis zeal not also been shown towards the Town Clerk in the same fatherly way, and with the same paternal care as was shown to the Eoad Board Clerk? And has not that Clerk shown the same filial love for worshipping at the shrine of Bacchus ? Deny this who can. As for Mr Henning's " want of good taste and gentlemanly feeling," in telling the truth, who cares about truth that leaves a sting behind ? or who cares about new chum, " puky" little Henning? "They speak no ill, and a kindly word Can never leave a sting behind." Great was Diana of the Ephesians. Greater was Jacob of Bumbledom. And now, my dear and " impartial " " Outsider," I have to ask you to be no longer an outsider, but to come in, and be unto us what the Star of the East was unto the Wise Men, and we will agree to erect a monument to our hero on Concave Square in front of the Temple of Justice. Your faithful and admiring friend, CLEON. Akaroa, 15th May, 1880.