MR. BARNES'S LETTER.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2566, 9 May 1871, Page 2

MR. BARNES'S LETTER.

To the Editor. Sir, —I am not in the slightest degree disappointed that it lias been left to Mr Barnes, as one of our civic councillors, to reply to the leader in your issue of the 22ud

April, as it gives the entire Electorate of Dunedin (Carey included), another instance of his heaven-born genius, and assists tho rate-paying community of Leith Ward into the mysteries of the manipulation of road metal, whether with the ordinary street napper or those bugbears the machines. The inhabitants of Dunedin must feel convinced, after this last production from his prolific brain, that he is not only great in stone-breaking, a burning and a shining light among warders in charge of convicts, but a (second Daniel come to judgment, and one to be proud of for standing forward and protecting the fair fame of himself and brother councillors and maddening the ratepayers with the noise of nothing

His experience as an engineer, of course, no one disputes, and, therefore, he is at liberty to give his opinion on puddle mederaeatli concrete. All the cartlv/H/dv} that ever visited New Zealand would have had as little effect on the dock leakage as the roar of the infallible John Barnes.

Might I suggest to Mr Barnes the propriety of leaving the dock, the machines, and the puddle alone, unless he has a de-ire to learn what effect the water cure would have on his constitution, and further, that he might employ the spare time he seems to have at his command, in writing tho first letter of tho alphabet once, and doubling the nineteenth, and I prophecy that he o ill turn out one of the brightest ornaments to society ever seen on this side of the water.

Being of an inquisitive turn myself, I can fancy how hard it will be for him to mind his own business, but by a little perseverance in the line he lias adopted lately, there can be no doubt but that ho will succeed, nature and his talents having specially ordained him as a critic on Evc-'hiy Star leaders, stone-breaking ma bines, and the uses of clay puddle. —1 am, &c., A Resident in Leith Ward. Dunedin, May 8, 1871.