To the Editor of the Hawke's Bay Times.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume III, Issue 167, 25 March 1864, Page 6 (Supplement)

To the Editor of the Hawke's Bay Times .

Sir, —I am sure that you equal me in contempt, for anonymous letters of a mischievous and unjust tendency ; and yet so easily is the public mind aroused to suspicion in consequence of the want of political principle of members of Provincial Councils, 1 feel myself called upon to notice a letter in your last issue in which my name is so freely mentioned as to preclude the possibility of silence on my part. Iso evil, however, is without its good, and the present attack enables me to put myself in an unmistakeable position before both the Government and my constituents. Thus, as I am aware curiosity has been aroused by the fact of my not having tendered for a contract, it gives me pleasure to have an opportunity of stating that I cannot afford to take such contracts, as other duties place it out of my power to absent myself from town for any lengthy period. This, as my reason, will be the more intelligible to you as you will have in memory the course I pursued, politically, during the meeting of the last Provincial Council, when I had an opportunity of proving to my constituents that I would be safe at all times to work truly in protecting the interests of the Town against all encroachments. Fortunately for mo, I am not so dependent on the sheep-farmer or Government patronage as to be drawn by my interest to truckle to a body whose chief praise is their power, and whose political sagacity is or e-sidedness. I have the privilege of representing intelligent townsfolk, who are keen enough to sever the grain from the chaff, and arc well aware that I ath not one to sacrifice my character for straightforwardness for the paltry pittance of some insecure Government employ. Thus I am convinced, if I found it advisable to take a contract to-morrow, the electors who returned me before would return me again with a larger majority ; and if I cannot afford to be independent as a politician, I will resign my seat in the Council, and trust to my professional abilities for abundance of employment. I am, sir, &c., M. FITZGERALD. Ifapier, March 24, 1863. [The above letter was unavoidably shut out from our columns on Friday last.— Ed.

Ckicket. —Among the curious connected with the game of cricket, Mr. Fred Lillywhite mentions that nn the 23rd May, 1823, eleven married women played eleven single women at Hockwold-cum-Wilton. The players were dressed in jackets and trousers, decorated with ribbons. The married women came off victorious. On the sth of August, in the same year, another match was played at Buckland, in Kent, when the spinsters won by 20 runs. At Parsons Green, near London, as late as 1835, eleven single women beat eleven married women by seven runs, the prize being £lO and a hot supper. The first match of cricket played in Ireland between two regularly established dubs of different counties came off on the 14th June, 1863, on the cricket ground at Norelands, between the clubs of Ballinasloe and Kilkenny, when the latter won by sixteen runs. The most extraordinary catch ever made at cricket was in a match in the Phoenix Park in 1844, when Captain Adams jumped over an iron fence three feet ton inches in height, and and while in the air caught the ball in his left hand. For this extraordinary feat he was made a life member of the Phoenix Park Club. Mr. Lillywhite mentions a circumstance not generally known in connection with accidents on the cricket field—namely that Frederick Lewis, Prince of Wales, father of George the Third, died (March 20, 1751) from the effects of an internal abscess from a blow he received from a cricket ball some months before whilst practising on the lawn in front of Clifden House, in Buckinghamshire.