THE FRACAS AT WESTPORT.

Marlborough Express, Volume III, Issue 97, 18 January 1868, Page 5

THE FRACAS AT WESTPORT.

j Mr. Commissioner Kynnersley has thought 3 fit to assault our late editor for reasons best t known to himself. The person alluded to I in “ Bohemian’s ” letter was no doubt commented upon in his public capacity ; therefore it is absurd for Mr. Kynnersley, as he , fathers the character, to suppose that it was ; meant for him privately. A public officer, i the head of a district where he appears pubL licly, makes himself and his actions public ) capital, in the same degree as a Minister of ; the Home Executive does when he appears at an agricultural dinner or a fete champetre. ) Kothing would be more ridiculous than to ! suppose that it was a private arrangement. If a man is in office, he should uphold, not so much his own character, but that of the i dignity of hi? office; for what would be said of a Judge breaking the law by any action, however venial ? and the Commissioner, to ; a great extent, is the Chief Justice of the Goldfields District. We do no'; dispute for one moment tiiat Mr. Kynnersley has done his best as a goldfields Warden. We do not dispute his popularity, foi it is very easy for 1 a gentleman to make himself popular at the expense of the public treasury, but we do arraign his fitness as a magistrate, when he shows his incompatibility to uphold the law that he has sworn to maintain in the hour of need. Wc did not mean to allude to this subject yesterday, preferring that our late Editor’s statement should go forth without any comment o r our part; but as we arc compelled to recur to this subject, we b.-lie "o there can he no two opinions but that Mr. Kynnersley is to blame. An allusion is made in our evening contemporary that several gentlemen in the district have “been attacked covertly, surreptitiously, and unjustly.” lu answer to this, we may state that though the language used may have been plain and outspoken, has it been refuted or attempted to be refuted, except in the knock-down style of Mr. Commissioner Kynnersley? We do not wish to sever our connection with Mr. Apted; on the contrary, we have retained him in our service in another department. Seme allusion was made as to the treatment that Mr. Kynnersley would have received in another office. We can only say, that we thought, and still think, that it would not become us to have made ourselves liable to the law, when it could be of no service either to Mr. Apted or ourselves. We can only sayT-iif* conclusion, that it remains to be seen whether such conduct on the part of a Go- ■ vernment official is of such a nature as to entitle him to hold a commission as one of Her Majesty’s Justices of- the Peace.—Westport Times.