MR HORNSBY AND HIS MISREPRESENTATIONS.

Hastings Standard, Issue 148, 17 October 1896, Page 4

MR HORNSBY AND HIS MISREPRESENTATIONS.

[To the Editor.]

Sir, —In to-day's issue of your valuable paper, Mr Hornsby again repeats his charge against the Prohibitionists. It seems to me that the friends of the publican in this colony are like the lawyers who have absolutely no case, so all they can do is to abuse their opponents. Mr Hornsby gives us the third of a column to prove that the young man who is supposed to have such a long neck was a liar. Allow me to remind Mr Hornsby that the very young man was had up at the Supreme Court for perjury, and was acquitted by Judge and jury. Now, is it charitable for Mr Hornsby to revive that case and call the young man a lair when the Court decided the very opposite '? I know every detail of the case, and thanks to the Major of the Salvation Army, Brigadier Hosking, and others, the same young man was acquitted. If Mr Hornsby wants to read the account, let him turn up the law proceedings for the case " Ilegina v. Bruce."

The other cases cited by Mr Hornsby lam not able to disprove. But I may sny that I have known the persons named and accused in his letter for nearly six years. I have worked with them, heard them speak at Cathedral Square, and other places, and I have never known a single instance where they have been proved to be untruthful. There is not a more truthful, honest, and plucky trio of men in this colony than the two Jsitts and T. E. Taylor. But supposing these men and others to be untruthful, is it fair to characterise all Prohibitionists as false ? Has Mr Hornsby ever proved my word to be untrue? He has known me and has worked with me for a while. I hope he will, in future, in his eastigations against certain individuals, give some qualification to his sweeping statements. —I remain yours, \'c., •Tohn Hoskin(>.