AN EXPLANATION.

King Country Chronicle, Volume I, Issue 3, 9 November 1906, Page 3

AN EXPLANATION.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —I take this opportunity of congratulating you upon the production of the first edition of your paper. On reading your locals, one in particular attracted my attention, viz:— That which concerned the exaggeration of Mrs Old's hardships. Whoever your correspondent may be, allow me to tell him he cannot posibly know the facts. Mrs Old was so ill that the doctor ordered her removal to New Plymouth at once, with the result that twenty British settlers and workmen volunteered to carry her on a stretcher to Mokau, the main road' between Auckland and Taranaki being in such a state that it was impossible to carry her by vehicle with any safety. It would certainly have opened your correspondent's heart had he been in Mokau the night the party arrived, and seen for himself whether any hardships had been endured, as a result of twenty-three miles' carrying. Mokau reached, found Mrs Old so ill that it was necessary to charter the s.s. Manukau especially to convey her to Waitara, at a cost of £lO (a special rate, not at all out of the way). Does your correspondent not think these are hardships to struggling settlers ? When Mrs Old arrived in New Plymouth she was at once operated upon, the doctor saying had the operation been delayed it would have ended fatally.—l am, etc., MOKAU.