KYEBURN.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 159, 22 March 1872, Page 3

KYEBURN.

(To the Editor of the Mount Ida Chronicle.) Sir,—Be kind "enough to allow-me to 4 correct some statements which your Kyeburn correspondent (in your last issui*) t has , made, concerning what was said and done •at the mee;ing held at Mr. Cain's, on ' Saturday, the 9th instant—statements which, I venture to assert, are in many .instances .devoid of truth, .and are.so •;.colored and distorted generally that, fail entirely to convey anything like a correct account of w hat actually transpired at "the mceiing referred to.' To the fir-?tpart of the letcer no one could possibly, object, for he therein states facts concisely and accurately em ugh ; it is when he comes to describe the meeting, and things, con"necled with it that 3 t ou see the bias and prejudice of the man running through " every line that he writes He says,-" after some discussion the Church was granted -for the use of a, school, for six months." ~But he forgets to say, or intentionally • omits to mentionj that there was not one at the meeting who raised his voic<j against giving the Chinch for j-clkm 1 purp»»s« s, but that all-were unanimous that it was the besjb. thing tha?. eould be done under the circumstances. H. next writes—" A. most .jdisgraceful >cone tnen eniued/ A man of the name of Kay got -up and stated that he f perceived three .Roman Catholics giving their vote*, and that he objected to their doing so, as they bad nothing to do with ■ the matter." Now, from r«adiug these . two'paragraphs one sees at once that he ...means to imply that Mr. Ray was the . cause of this disgraceful scene, as he is , pleased to style it. jSow, I hold Mr. ]Ray was only doing his duty, and doing what - Catholics would have done, aud what they »- would have had a perfect right to do, had ,' they Been placed in a similar position. If

there was, any. disgrace in the matter, I do' not" admit—then surely it f.imust fall on those, who voted ]lhat the * Church be turaed into a school, when they "know and" will admit "that they have \ no :; right' or title to the building whatever. Then lie finds Tault with'the Chairman for' the chair .when Mr. Keene was' j„ about to puf a'prbjpositibh to the meeting, ..that the Church, be removed from the 'public cemetery. But to have been inr- • partial he should have added that the 'Chairman gave; as his reasons for leaving the chair, that he considered the business for which the meeting had been called was concluded, and that his' remaining any longer in the chair would only tend to encourage irrelevant and unprofitable discussion. This decision of the Chairman was,'l think, a very right and sensible one, as it put a complete stop to some loqua- { cious' individuals like Mr. Keene, who seenitd anxious and ready to give fheir opinions and make propositions about subjects which could Lave no possible bearing or relevance towards the business for "which* that particular meeting had been convened. Again he says, "Mrl Eay ' here remarked that Catholics had nothing to do with the cemetery." sSow, this —to put it plainly and without any equivrca- , tion—is an unmitigated falsehood, and the course an honorable iran would take in such a case would be to apologize publicly at his earliest opportunity—but no one, in this instance, expects anything of the suit. Tn another paiagiaph he wiitcs that " Mr J?ay informed the public the single- nun had nothing to d<; \uil» the school." This is.another uiriruiL. Mr. Bay never di-nied the right of voting to single men. "When the'tours of attendance at school were"

tinder discussion," Mr. Raysaid :i t'Kkt he thought that this matter would he best dealt with by the School.Committee, and he. also made .the remark that this part of the business could not be very interesting to the single men. This is a true state- 1 ment. of, the and, adopting the words of your correspondent, I.will leave the • public to pronou ace judgment Not. satisfied with this amount of mis-statement, he again says—" in strong contrast with the : .behaviour of those people w;ho have charge ■ of (he Church, I have much pleasure in . stating that Mrs. George very kindly consenied to give the use of a room for the ' up-creck children." This means, if it means anything, that those people who .have charge of ihc Chmch threw obstacles in the way of the (. hureh being got for school purposes. How could he write in , this manner, when he knows perfectly well ; that the Church Committee called a nieeting as soon as possible, to get empowered ! to gram the building; and what is more, j one of those people w;ns the first at the j meeting to get up and make a proposition j that the Chuich be granted for school pur- ' poses. They likewise both- there are only two of them—subscribed liberally for erecting a schoolmaster's house. I can , ea>ily see how ' hey might have done less, but f am totally unable to perceive how they could have done more. He begins his letter by saying that he has a disgraceful tale to tell, and I think no one will j deny that it is a disgraceful" tale, inasmuch i that it contains untruths, ' iriisconstructs ! statements, suppresses facts,. and, what is I still worse, maligns a respec'able member , of the community—unuiely, Mr. Ray, a gentleman, I venture to affirm, who, on account of his integrity and nobility of character, commands and deserves the respect and esteem of all who enjoy the pleasure of his acquaintance. But I will leave him" and his tale ; and at the same time express a hope (though this is is not the first)' that it may be the last time that any one here will need publicly to notice his effusions on account of their—to write mildly—bias and inaccuracy.

I beg to apologise ibr taking up so much of your space—l am, &c,

Kyebubnite.

(To the Editor of the Mount Ida Chronicle.)

March 19th.

Sib,—Your" own correspondent" from the Kyebiirn has made two assertions in His'last." letter (which ' appeared in your >-3?M -,?f ;l which I beg to contradict, viz.:—That Mr. Bay "(at a pubHc meeting) said the Catholics had-nothing to do with the cemetery; secondly—That Mr. Bay informed the public that the single men had nothing to do with the"school, and denied them the right of voting. Now,. 1 1 beg leave to state that both statements' are utterly false. • r I would recommend own " to state facts for the future.: —I am, &c. -■•'.■ ---. . Bay.

;'-■ The Ballarat «■ Star * gives the following information respecting his Celestial Majesty the Emperor o China :-—" The ; GiiiiVf-se"•■>%.-w-vY{s. : ip"«-d»v: t>-at has pas-, se'dris," ■we'are-ridd ty one- whogot his: animation from a Chinese, source, the eleventh anniversary of the accession <>t the ; prusciit Emperor Kl Tsiang:. The Emperor is eighteen years of age; and entered into the holy bonds of wedlock at the early age of sixteen. Since t'«n re has been married 'considerably,' m A rtcmus Ward would my, for l>is>u!>je«t iii Victoria assert that he has I<H wives. With -respect to his eiiUlKDv ; 11 we c;;ii learn is that he has twt- d >.i> first being t-o years old This almond-eved babe has been proclaimed ti rough, the empire as the future ruler. We are further informed thas tie 118 wives were all presents to imj eior Xi Tsiang, and that it is as much as a subject's head is worth 1<» present him with a wife' under fourteen years of age."