Drawing a Badger

Feilding Star, Volume IX, Issue 153, 26 July 1888, Page 2

Drawing a Badger

The following •' elegant extract" is made from the local columns of our contemporary, the Advocate, of the 24 tb iuet., and is an attempted reply to an editorial article of ours which appeared on the 19th in&t. : — " The Fkildlx\G Star fails to understand our reasons for advising the Freetraders to support the Government now that there is no chance of repealing the tariff. In the article to which our contemporary refers we gave logical grounds for our contention in language clear enougfl for any ordinary understading. Though we supply our contemporary with facts, we cannot undertake to furnish him with brains to comprehend them. That should have beeu done by Nature, and if Nature failed, that is not our fault. Prate about inconsistency cornea with ill grace from a paper that strongly supported Mr Baxlance as Minister of Lands at the same time that it was vigorously sur« porting Mr Macabthuii as candidate for Manawatu, though Mr Macarhur's main object in seeking a seat was to help to eject the Ministry of which Mr liAii ;nck was a prominent member." When w > provoked this discussion we did so with the ho^ e that oi r contemporary would, at any rate, reply to us editorially, with some pretence of courtesy, and with an absence of anything like the vulgarity eviuced in the foregoing. To all well-bred men who have accustomed themselves to the discussion of public affairs, or expression of opinions on abstract questions of public interest in the columns at newspapers there

is always — or should he — a desire to keep the individuality of the writer as far in the back ground as possible. The most excellent rule is, we observe with regret, " more honored in the breach than the observance" by our contemporary who i has, in the present instance especially, ; allowed himself to be betrayed into an ebullition of illtemper and consequent bad taste. That personal abuse is not argument is an old and trite saying, and it is worthy of note that when an adversary falls back upon that last resource of a timid or weak mind, a generous foe will at once grant the mercy thus tacitly demanded. We hold this position as regards the Advocate, and while we pardon the i offence, we pity the offender. We I are reproached with supporting Mr i Ballance and Mr Maoarthur al- ] though the politics of these gentlemen were divergent. Iu this we find nothing to reproach ourselves with. We have a thorough and abiding ' faith in the two men, and as we have . been loyal to them in the past, so ; shall we continue to the end. It is ', not the custom of this journal to trim its sails to every changing wind, nor \ alter its views whether on persons or politics to suit the circumstances of a day. Nor does it seek to catch a fleeting popularity by catering to the tastes of the thoughtless or ignorant. We profess to have the courage of our opinions, and dare to say that we have never feared to attack a wrong or vindicate a right, for the sake of mere " trade considerations." Can our contemporary say as much ?