AN OLD SHELTER PIT.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 3517, 4 May 1905, Page 2

AN OLD SHELTER PIT.

In firing his Parthian shot at the Borough Council last evening the late Mayor, Mr G. A. Simpson, saw fit to make a stetement which we find it necessary to specifically deny. He charges us with having, in our issue of April 27th, misreported his remarks concerning borough finances. We supported Mr Simpson’s candidature for the Mayoralty last week, but we cannot allow even Mr Simpson to impugn the accuracy of the figures published. He contends that what he said at the public meeting held on Tuesday evening, the 25th ult., was that “ No 6 Line loan account was overdrawn,” and not the general account of the borough fund. Quite possibly Mr Simpson intended to say so, but what he did say is reported in the 79th line of the eighth column of page two of the HERALD of April 27th : “ There was an overdraft of some £70,” etc. It is strange that he should not have discovered this error, as he terms it, before, and denied it. His references last evening to No 6 Line were, as we have been at some pains to discover, beside the mark, as there was no special account for that street at the time to which he referred, i.e., whan he took office in May, 1904. Just here, too, we may mention that Mr Simpson’s public statement that he “ was met with difficulties ” on assuming office must not be taken literally. The episode connected with the auditor occurred on July 22nd, and the Symons claim first came in its new form before the council on September 21st, two months later, and four months after Mr Simpson succeeded to the Mayoral chair. In view of the progressive spirit shown by the late Mayor we regret exceedingly that he should at the lost moment have acted in such an ill-advised manner, and though his parting admonitions to the new council were appropriate they were perhaps more pointed than the occasion required. The iron sinks deeply into the soul sometimes, we are aware, but we think that a speaker of Mr Simpson’s ability would have shown more perspicacity in the choice of the language he used. Blaming the reporter is an old-time method of attempting to shelter from one’s misstatements, but we retuse in this case to be made to serve such a purpose.