APPROBATION.

Cromwell Argus, Volume V, Issue 267, 22 December 1874, Page 5

APPROBATION.

To the Editor of the Cromwell Anoua. Sir,—Your article of date December Bphased me. immense'y. Seldom I read any Colonial effusions ; for such productions exercise a bane-* ful effect upon good taste and pure style. But your leader of the Bth current has attracted my attention, both on account of its manly spirit and telling sarcasm. It is the retort courteous. Millen Conghtrey's queer report " on the filthy habits of the people of Cromwell" has pointed a moral and adorned leaders for the Dunedin "hireling scribblers," who, though "without brains," manage nevertheless to subsist, parasite* like, on the bounties of their patrons and protectors. It is enough to raise the inextinguishable laughter of Homer's Olympian gods to hear such men sneering at "the morality of Cromwell," as contnrsted, by implication, with the lofty code of ethics that do duty in the base editorial dens of hireling tnuters, who, forsooth, pretend to reflect public opinion. Public opinion ! —a fool's word in these provinces. As if Dunedin's journals could possibly say anything that runs counter to their board of venal guardians. It is the very quintessence of irony to fling back in their voracious teeth " the shining example and sublime integrity" of their cringing, cowering, fawning, soulless, despicable,-and politically-corrupt editors. Of one ever. I can assure you, Sir, and that is; they will not dare to. transfer a quotation from your admirable leader into their time-serving columns. The picture is too true to nature for such a purpose. Who is quasi-Pmfessor Coughtrey that his ravings should be in.-olently thrust in the faces of honest men ? When he §ot bis sinecureship he went off on a year's visit to Britain. But like the other quasi-professor*—who had 18 q'nasi-students out of offices to manipulate upon for five hours weekly for six months—the man will have nothing to do except quarterly to draw bis salary at the Treasury. To be sure, he is a Professor of Anatomy and Physiology; but where are the»ubjecs? However, there are plenty rats nibbling the hooks in the Government and University buildings. A thesis on the physiological habitudes and anatomical construction of a rat may be a subject well suited for the noble mind of an Otago professor in a charterless university. Sir, t beg leave, in conclusion, to congratulate yon and your good town upon the manly independence exhibited in the manner by which yon carelessly fling off into the fire the loathsome vi; er that alighted upon the body politic of your infant corporation. Such noble conduct reminds me of the hemic feat of the infant Hercules when the snake coiled around bis neck in the cradle.—l am, kc, J. G. S. Oimnt. York Place. Dunedin, December 18, 1874.