MR MACARTHUR IN REPLY.

Feilding Star, Volume XII, Issue 1, 17 June 1890, Page 2

MR MACARTHUR IN REPLY.

TO THE KDITOR OF THE BTAH. Sir, — I am much obliged to " Polly Femua " for informing the public and nyself in your last issue that Birrningla'm is not in the Kiwitea district. In aiy ignorance, as a new arrival, I iinagned, taking a line from Birmingham to Pemberton in the north, Cheltenham in bhe south, eastward to the boundary of bhe Pohangina Ward under the Buahine Range, and westward to the Bangitikei River, that Birmingham was as nearly as possible in the centre of the Eiwitea District, when the distribution of population was taken into account. However, it appears I was mistaken, and I acknowledge my error with regret. I have attended twice at Birmingham — that is, travelled 72 miles — for the purpose of meeting the ill-conditioned fellows " Polly Femus " refers to, of whom evidently he is not one. None of them apparently haye attended, or if they have, they did not put their awkward questions about the Onepuhi Bridge. Perhaps an answer was the last thing they wanted, or possibly their non-attendance was due to the fact that I held my meetings at Birmingham, which it appears is outside the Kiwitea district. As lam now all at sea as to where the Kiwitea district really is, I should have been obliged to " Polly Feemus " if he had indicated the correct boundaries. As he has not done so, I ana going to try next whether Cheltenham is in the Kiwitea district, and will hold a meeting there at eight o'clock p.m., if I can obtain the use of the Schoolhouse, on Saturday, the 28th June, returning from my Parliamentary duties in Wellington for the purpose of meeting those whom " Polly Femus " terms ill-conditioned fellows, face to face. If I have made a mistake in geography, these gentlemen are also widely mistaken in their estimate of my character, if they think I shall be afraid or puzzled to answer their awkward questions about the Onepuhi Bridge, in a manner which will be satisfactory to my own self-respect, if not to their animus. The fact is, that as the then Chairman of the Manchester Eoad Board, I found that I had a certain duty to perform with respect to the Onepuhi Bridge. I knew perfectly well that in its performance I should probably offend some Kiwitea ratepayers, and thereby run the risk of losing their votes, if I became a Parliamentary candidate for their suffrages. Still, I was not going to shirk from my clear official duty on that account. Had I done so, I would have been unworthy of the support of the we^-conditioned electors in the Kiwitea. The votes of the ill-conditioned ones (they have to thank "Polly Femus" for the epithet) I must do without, as I am not going to excuse or palliate my action in any way for the purpose of propitiating them. The Press of the colony and many electors complain with more or less reason of the degradation of Parliament. If such degradation exists, the constituents have only themselves to blame for it, as they are too often influenced in choosing their representatives, not by their conduct in Parliament or the soundness of their opinions on the large questions which the Parliament of the colony has to deal with, but by what a candidate may have done or omitted to do on some comparatively paltry question of a road or a bridge. — Yours, &c, D. H. Macabthub.