FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 464, 24 March 1909, Page 10

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE.

■ Sir,—You printed recently a report from a correspondent"which makes mo say:—"We are going to make an emphatic demand in April, and if the Government docs not givo •us What we- ask, we will shoot them." Now, sir, I am sorry that the gentleman who supplied the information took mo at all seriously. ' I was trying to' got a seat on a crowded train when I was held up by a stranger and pressed to answer questions of a political nature. The stranger informed me that ho was against the Government, and so forth, and I said in my best English: "Oh, I shoot tho Government. , ' Then ho said to mo he was Opposition. To which I remarked I. was against Opposition as well. However, later on tho journey, we discussed general matters rationally,, particularly in' reference to tho largo meeting I , .had-■con-vened to bo held at Tokaami on the 10th of next month. In tho course of out interchanges, my friend informed me that he mis a newspaper man, upon which I asked him not to _ take- any notice of ■ anything that I Uad said "in a gassy way," as at tho time 1 did not know who he was, and felt uiider the 'circumstances inclined to say just' auvthing for tho moment. This ho said lio would do. It should appear clear to anyone tiiat, as I am calling a large meeting of the Native- tribes, to which I have invited Uis Excellency tho Governor and Ministers .to discuss public matters of interest to all of us, that I could scarcely be expected to use the words, debited to me in any way but to satisfy the inquisitive.—l am, etc.,

TUKINO. (Interpreter, H. B. Stowell.)