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Dunstan Times, Issue 790, 8 June 1877, Page 2

The Cromwell Argus is at its oft'enr give tricks again. For four months its columns have reeked with abuse of | the County Chairman, to whose credit be it said, that he never has once noticed these malicious attacks, but lias very properly treated his contemptible assailants with dignified silence, content to live down the slanders hurled against him. The wisdom of this course is apparent. The public are beginning to see that they have been used as tools by the Cromwell agitators. Every day that passes by sneaks trumpet-tongued in favor of Mr Fyke, and convinces the people that his actions are dictated by a sincere regard for the welfare of the County. This indeed is his offence. Ho would not sacrifice the County to Cromwell, and hence the local organ of a petty clique has been hired to write him down. But it will take a great many Cromwell Arguses to write down a man, who, regardless of popular clamor and irrespective of personal consequences, steadily pursues the right, and that such has been Mr Fyke’s course no unprejudiced observer will venture to gainsay. Not a single fault has been found with his management of County business, and bad Cromwell only been declared the County Town, nothing would have been too sycophantic for the robust stomach of the local press. From the very outset it was plain, that in the estimation of Cromwell, the County system was specially made for the solo benefit of Cromwell. The people of Kawarau and Hawea have been befooled to a considerable extent, but they are now awake to the deception that lias been practised upon them, and the wretched tool of a wretched clique is corresponding!v wrath. In the language of honest John Bunyan, “ he is, by reason of the many shrewd brashes that ho has met with, grown so crazy and stiff in his joints, that he can now do little more than sit in his cave’s mouth, grinning at pilgrims as they go by, and biting his nails because he cannot come at them ” The senseless snarl against Mr Fyke to which lie gave utterance in his last issue is the outcome, of disappointed malice. It reads like the screaming objurgations of an old fish-wife, or one of Mrs Caudle’s curtain lectures. It is “Like a tale told by an idiot. Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Mr Fyke has received a friendly requisition signed by 400 electors, as against a hostile requisition signed by only 232 electors, and this is gall and worm wood to the clique and its puny organ. It is useless to attempt to disguise the fact that Mr Fyke has, to ail intents and purposes, been re-elected by a majority of two to one. And we may add that wore the business now to bo commenced afresh on both sides, the majority would ho largely increased. He will therefore go to the Assembly j strong in the support of the electorate, i and nothing that the Cromwell clique can do, or say, or write, either now or

hereafter, can weaken his position. Really it is a pity that our transpontine neighbours should act in such a puerile manner. They have already made themselves the laughing-stock of so much of the Colony as is cognizant of their existence, and their perpetual shrieking only provokes ridicule and contempt. We feel quite certain that all the more reputable people in the place are thoroughly ashamed and disgusted at the conduct of the little faction which persists in disturbing the peace of the community. As for the writers in the Argus they deserve to be soundly birched. Any more dignified punishment would bo too good for such children. Because, forsooth, they cannot have all they want and dominate the whole County, they howl like cats in concert on moonlight nights. For their own sweet sakes—and we know not of any more forcible adjuration—we advise them to hold their peace. They have done all the mischief they possibly can do, and though it is bub little, they can do no more except to themselves. Our Cardrona friends must surely think that it would be better to be allied to the most distant County in New Zealand than to such noisy self-seeking blusterers as are to be found in Cromwell, and—for the credit of humanity we are thankful to say—in no other place under the sun.