MR WHITES' REPLY TO MR ELLIOTT.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 414, 15 November 1911, Page 7

MR WHITES' REPLY TO MR ELLIOTT.

To the Editor. gj r> —p r ay accept my apology for the prolongation of this correspondence between Mr Elliott and myself. He professes a desire to maintain a friendly feeling during this controversy. I hope that he will keep this resolve steadily before him, for I have no wish to fight, but if compelled I can hit very hard. JBe that as it may, I ought to consider myself crushed by the weight of his arguments, but try as 1 will I cannot work up that sort of feeling, in the face of such a masterpiece of "folly'' a-5 the following. "Two questions alone, viz., the land settlement policy, and loading the back blocks, is sufficient to seal it's (the Government's) doom." I ask, in reply, is a Government to be doomed to'die because a handful of discontented, or unfortunate back blockers : are disappointed? Did they in j there with their eyes shut? Evi- i dentiy those you set up as the "hoc- j rible example" did. Methinks that j ve r v few would u e caught tn a t way. j It goes without saying that I, as a j Christian, and you as an ex-clergy-man, must sypmathise with them and wish them relief in the immediate future. You can depend upon this, my good sir, that if the half of the charges laid at the door of the Government by you, and your new political chief be true, their sins ■ will find them out, the law of com- j pensation of which you, and your new allies, seem to the ignorant of, clearly shows this. But before I proceed further on this topic, I 11 give you a bit of sound advice, for 1 see you are trying' to establish yourself as a kind of furor scribendi. Now, in this, rage for writing, please always remember that suaviter in modo, is much to be preferred to the fortiter in re style, and I feel sure you will accept this hint and return to what we set out to do. Then 111 ask you to seriously ponder over the abominable charges made by the Massey cum Allen party, who arc fighting for the Trea- , sury benches, and at whose instigation numerous Roya! Cammroissions on trumped-up charges, and costing the country many thousands of pounds were set up and all fell to the ground almost baseless; now, is it too much to expect that after they had had the fullest investigation, and found it so, that they would, as honest politicians, cease from running up and down the country telling the same old tales. My belief is that the ballot boxes will tell another tale. Now we will discuss the political equilibrium of which you make mention, if you intend by that to apply it to our coming election, you are little too previous. There is certainly a Socialistic upheaval going on the civiilsed world j over, which , wiser men than you or I j are finding it difficult to successfully j meet, but it is not applicable to New Zealand politics, and in conclusion I may say that your wanderings have led me off the point that we undertook to discuss, which was the relative merits of Mr W. T. Jennings and Mr Wilson as candidates for Parliament, you, by inference say, as many others of your party also say, Mr Jennings has fought well for his constituents during the past nine years, and we j will reward him by kicking him j ignominiously out of Parliament, i though we can prove by Hansard that | he is, and has been, one of the most. . if not the most, independent mem- j bers of the House \yha gave up his scat, in the Legislative Council in order to serve ua, and he is fit to take Cabinet rank in any Government in New Zealand, or out of it. This is as well known to you as to the rest ! of your newly-found fraternity, which | facts you would like to keep from j those of our citizens who for the first . time are qualified to vote. I have j much to aay against the sins of the j late Opposition, but space forbids.—-i j am, etc., j W. WHITE. ! The Gardens, Te Kuiti, I 13th November, 1911. !