A DOWNRIGHT LETTER.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1799, 11 July 1913, Page 5

A DOWNRIGHT LETTER.

WESTPOET HARBOUR AFFAIRS. (By Telegraph—Special Correspondent.). Westport, July 10. In a letter to the Westport "News" tonight, Mr. F. F. Munro, chairman of the .Westport Harbour Board, writes:— "Sir,—The extremes to which party politics may go have a splendid exemplification in your Parliamentary Teport yesterday concerning Mr. W. R. Simpson. Mr. Simpson being a co-member of the Har- . bour Board, 1 take this opportunity of expressing my Tespect' ana admiration for his undoubted worth. I personally _ inquired. on the spot into tho cases against ham, now fully advertised in the press of the Dominion. I am of the opinion that if ever a man was the victim of the petty jealousy and conspiracies of a small community, then this is the-man. 'n any case, he has paid the price of what, at worst, might be called the folly of hotheaded youth. His own, fellow TM.j'dents j rejoice in him, and have the cuuiplctost i confidence that, while he is with ttuin, they have an exceptionally able, energetic, and progressive man to voice tlitir - interests. To know the man and talk with 1 him is to feel at once that you aro in the 'presence of a full-powered, determined pioneer—the main type that this country wants. The episode, no doubt, was, and is, a bitter one in his career. I hia detractors who so gaily, for party purposes, are endeavouring to Te-blast him, may never slip, as we all have a tendency to do, as time Tolls on, and, if they do slip, I hope that at least their wirab and their bonnie boys will not have to suffer, for all time because any popinjay politician wants 'a momentary gratification of h,is vanity. : Ono can almost forgive the member i'or Nelson, ,but epithets are not yet cast for the coward who handed hiin tho information. Mr. Simpsoil' is among our rising young men. Ho is one of the. manliest, and as straight as a gun-barrel. If I stand alone, I count it gain to be able, through the courtesy of your columns, to publicly give mj; opinion of the man. Somebody could forgive seventy times seven, but if a hot word and a Teady. hand—'when all the world • was young lads'—is going to bar the State of ■ the service qf the young blood when they . reach maturity, then Heaven help us in the days to come.". The "News" mentions that Mr. Simpson at the time 6trohely resented the imputar tions, feeling th'at an injustice had' been done him, and he wished to appeal, but as this would have necessitated a visit to ■ Westport, with many witnesses (entailing heavy expenses), he could not appaal. He therefore let the matter go.