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Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1313, 14 October 1872, Page 2

Mr W. N. Fbanklyn does make some extraordinary discoveries regarding both himself and others. He once discovered himself to possess attributes fitting him for election to the Superintendency of Nelson. He also discovered himself a member of the Nelson Provincial Council, and fonnd himself ont of his seat as soon as he was in it. He subsequently discovered, and revealed in a speech at Cobden, that one of the Buller members of the Council wus a brother-in-law to Mr D. M. Luckie— an allegation which rather astounded the parties interested. He now discovers in " a certain editor of a Greymouth newspaper an " old friend and school-fellow" of the said Mr Luckie, and attributes to that person certain action which would be quite legitimate on his part, but of which he happens to be perfectly innocent. Writing to the Nelson Examiner, on September 30, Mr Franklyu says ;— "There

is a paragraph in a recent Colonist, informing the public that a requisition is being signed on the West Coast, asking Mr Luckie to stand for the Superintendency. Now this is such an unblushing exaggeration of what is really being done, that as a West Coast resident I think I should just give a glimpse of the other side of the picture. As soon as Mr Curtis took office in the present Ministry, Mr Luckie immediately "despatched news .to an old friend and schoolfellow (a certaiu editor of a Greymonth newspaper) of his intention to stand for the Superintondoncy, and forthwith articles appeared in that journal lauding Mr Luckie's (invisiole to ordinary visions) virtues to the skies. Something more, however, had to be done to lead the Nelson voters to think that Mr Luckie would be supported on the Coast, which resulted in his old friend and schoolfellow writing out a requisition on behalf of Mr Luckie, and forwarding it up country to the reporter of this Greymouth newspaper that he might obtain signatures." Now there is no " school-fellow" of Mr Luckie connected with the Press in Greymouth. There are undoubtedly old friends, to whose vision, as it is not so very " ordinary" as Mr Franklyn's, his virtues are apparent. But the statement about Mr Luckie " despatching news" of himself to them in re the Superintendency is a mere assumption on the part of Mr Franklyn, and it ia altogether untrue that a requisition was written and forwarded to the up-country correspondent of any Greymouth newspaper for the purpose of obtaining signatures. Mr Franklyn's disposition to rush into print and into the language of the insane is well known. It is painful to contemplate him exhibiting traces of moral insanity by perpetrating gratuitous falsehoods.