CORRESPONDENCE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 197, 7 October 1909, Page 5

CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor.

Sir,—l think I can best replfr *o Mr Sowry's very temperate contribution by * fleeting comment open its wore salient angles, t feet assured from tit* fact that he conformed to journalistic custom of honest attack by *»bscribtng bis name, that it is no mere dry-throat anger at my successful castigatkre of the awful would-be humaniats who deftled cor prscints with their demented obsession and loathsome eeeompanimeßt*. bat a sincere desire for illumination:— Bo asks If 1 am the W.B. of "aim high" admonition," the peerless writer of Maori lore. legends, and love stories" {very nicely said, thanks):—l am.

Who "has adopted the very unsavoury weapon* of abuse," etc:—One picks up foul things with stable fork. And when I am hit with club 1 do not return with a pillow. Who "seek* by the multitude and magnitude of his words to cover op nil the arguments of bis opponents."' «te- * —What arguments? There were no arguments. That was the irritant. No arguments as outlined by the worthy chairman's preface. And I refused to accept the miserable buffoonery exhibited and one-sided assertion orated as argument. By what order of proeeedure regnant in free communities were they entited to insult an intelligent audience of disabilitybowed Empire Builders with the contemptible stuff offered, and hope to retire unavenged? You mistake the position my friend. Our degradation ] admit is low; but the object of my pen is to prevent its being tower. Further. I absolutely deny them, er any section of the community in which I Uve. the right to illegally compel me to accept what my education and experience tells me is false: I may know that tea is chemically injurious. but that dees not authorise me to forbid them to make tanpits of their bowels if they want tof Let that pass. "If the writer of these.... is "W. 8." why does he not give us some information?" etc.:— My critic is evidently unacquainted with judical proeeedure : If I assert a thing, and you deny it. I have to prove my assertions. not you jour denial! And that their assertion was founded on hearing and misrepresentation was manifested by the fact, that, when I asked for proofs. and detailed information, that semicircle of asserters sat dumb. Do yeu see the point? Besides, dear critic. or other "information" commandeers, post me a fee of two guineas each, and it wilt at once be -tuppticl. Otherwise: No: You ask too much: First prove your assertions. ♦♦ W.B. side tracks on to many* phases of the liquor question that have been threshed out over and over again":—What phases? Threshed out by whom, and how? By logicians like the "Anxious Enquiry Clique" of that night? Also: "Wine at the marriage feast"? Surely this requires no thrashing out: never did: never will: It is a statement contained fat a record accepted as of Divine authorisation, and is complete as it stands. If it requires thrashing out. or adjusting to prohibition standards. or amending, its contexts are open to the same corrections. And if that be so, we must discard the whole record. Let us do so. "The'rights of majorities to make laws restricting the liberty of minoritj€S":—Evidently this is my critic's inadvertent transposition: Read the other way about, it meant, that a few misguided zealots were not privileged by any known law of British equities to impose upon a large Re he Potae , population outlawry—nor Pakatoa Island regulations T —nor defamations F—nor degradations I follows a quasi prohibition sermonette, my critic after a hard pant essayed to get in, and seems a literal transcript of the cult's stock phrase catalogue, about as edifying and as relevant.) Finally: "Why does W.B. seek with his brilliant pen to bolster op that which is not good?":—W.B. never did, and never will, bolster up that which is not good. For instance: I indignantly rebel against an outlawry which deprives of certain privileges my brother over the border enjoys; this Is degrading to me. and everything that degrades a man "is not good." I desire the privacy of my house, my backyard, my premises inside my boundaries to be secure from intrusion without my consent, be they cat-treading espionage of unwarranted constables. or pimps, ok disturbances my brothers across WfhSfldaV* is not subject to. It makes me Insecure and unhappy: for 1 know that my status of free Briton sustains me in the audacity to be secure and content. And all that militates against my statutory happiness "is not good" r Further: I desire when I step oft the train to feel that I am not spied upon, that my portmanteau, satchel or parcel shall be Immune from the prying curiosity of the constable, should his enmity to me induce him to gratify that moral and social crime, for probably I should resist and bang my satchel on his nose, and cause an urpoar on the station platform; and ail this would happen because a clique of sickly effigies prevent me from locally opting whether I must subject myself to a "thing that is not good!" That is why 1 tight like a Tartar for the right my brother over the border owns, that is to local opt whether "the thing that is not good" shall continue. Also, that Is why when I strip fox the fight you see the buff. I hit as hard las can, and touch foul things with a stabtefork, and want my adversary to bit back—but he must take the mask off, else I treat biro not as an honorable adversary like yourself, but like the blackguardly coward that he is, with total disregard; one of which ilk Mr Jennings, M.P., for me landed a neat shot in the eye; the which 1 thank him for.—r am, ite., W. 8., Te Kuiti.

Mr Laird who was so badly injured at Auckland recently is doing well in Auckland Hospital. He has wrtteo to friends in Taomaronui. As showing the severity of the mishap, it may be mentioned that the handle of the point rf Which he fell penetrated right ugh the abdomen from front to hack. The many friends of the "Atee" will ba gl«d to team of the improvement ia hit condition.