MR. LEARY IN REPLY.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 302, 11 December 1874, Page 3

MR. LEARY IN REPLY.

| ("To Hie Editor of the Morar. Lua Cxiuosicr,E.) Sir,—With regard to the personal attack upon me in your open column, it requires but little discernment to perceive from the internal evidence, contained in the letters, of their having been written in Dunedin, and in the interest of one of my opponents, if not by his own hand. The writer has adopted the course usually pursued by those who have nothing to say in favor of themselves or their friends —they seek to further their own interests by improvising charges against their opponents. Ido not intend to retaliate—it being contrary to the principles I have laid down for my guidance, to endeavor to obtain support for myself by reviling others. But —as your readers will probably look for some explanation regarding the dreadful things said of me by your correspondent, "An Elector"—l beg you will find me space in your next issue for my reply. I shall not attempt to palliate or deny the charge of being an accountant, and (temporarily) manager of a newspaper company which publishes the ' Southern Mercury,' a paper that may fairly be re T garded as the provincial organ of the mining community. Your correspondent Ims surely made a slip in. advancing such an argument against me. Perhaps he will be good enough to explain what he means by the " Dunedin High-street clique." If there be such an organisation, I.am ignorant of its existence, and most emphatically deny being: in. any way whatever connected with, or under the influence of, any " clique," party, or class. I admit that I twice unsuccessfully contested the " seat for Caversham." Ido not by any means feel disgraced by having been beaten on both occasions; for, under the circumstances, my position on the. poll was not anything to be ashamed of. Many better men than myself have been oftener defeated, and Subsequently successful. Had I, like one of the candidates on the present occasion, previously represented a district, and, offering myself for re-elec-tion, been rejected, I might have felt disgraced in having losttKe confidence of my constituents, arid the circumstance might have been urged atjainst me when seeking the suffrages of another constituency. The first time I contested the Caversham election I was late in the field, and to a certain extent unknown; while both my opponents (Mr. Pish, then Mayor.of Dunedin, and formerly a member of the Provincial Council, and Mr. Stout) werepublic men.. To the best of my recollection, the result of the poll was—Stout, 135 V Fish, 110; Leary, 90. On the last occasion, the voting was—Stout, 190; Leary, 179: majority, 11. To the charge of being on the second occasion merely the " tool of Macandrew's Committee," I give a most unqualified denial. Indeed, it was to my independence that I attribute my defeat, as will be seen from the following extract from the report of my remarks at the close of the poll: "He (Mr. Leary) owed the proud position he occupied on the poll, for he did consider it a proud position, to the efforts of his friends, and principally to the working men in that part of the district. He believed there had not been that interest evinced by the Macandrew party that there ought to have been, simply because he had stated he would exercise his own opinions in an independent mauner. They had probably come to the conclusion he was a man who would not be led by the nose, and that, no doubt, made them lukewarm in their support." •' An Elector " also charges me with ingratitude to the Central Committee, and " meanness " in refusing to pay a "paltry sum in connection with the election." My reply is, I had nothing to be grateful for. The explanation of my refusal to pay a debt not contracted by myself, nor by authority or consent, is contained in tho extract kindly furnished by your correspondent. If there was any meanness connected with the matter, it was on the side of the Committee, who (not content with saddling me with expenses they, promised to pay) allowed me to be sued for the hire of a buggy used partly in connection with another election which took place the same day. Any of my friends in Mount Ida, or the rest of the Province, will, I feel assured, testify that " meanness," " dishonorable," and "unscrupulous," are terms that canmt with truth or justice, be applied to me ; and if your correspondent, instead of - cowardly sheltering himself under a nom de plume in the columns of a newspaper, will manfully disclose his name,; I will tell him to his face that, in applying such terms to me, he is acting the part of a liar and a villian. Another of my crimes in the estimation of your correspondent is, that I aru a Dunedin man; and he argues from that circumstance that I cannot and will not faithfully represent, a Goldfields constituency. This is a mere assertion, unsupported by proofs, and iin tenable, as I shall be able to show when I meet the electors. I ask the electors whether —until the last general election, when they wisely rejected the automatons who had previously represented the district, and chose men calculated to exercise influence in the. Council and inspire respect for theinselras—the constituency, through its members, had any weight in that Assembly, or was the district benefitted by having representatives P Your present member has, on more than one occasion, borne testimony to the benefit of Mr. Oliver's influence, and must, I feel sure, be alive ..to the advantage of having an energetic member in Dunedin, always on the spot to urge upon the Government the requirements of the district, and watch the interests of his constituents. As the experiment has been successful, the electors cannot do better than repeat it. Such scurrilous insinuations as those indulged in by your correspondent do, in my opinion, exceed the license allowable at election times. It is to an indisposition to submit to such unwarrantable attacks that deters many good men from offering their services to the Province. —I am, &c.,

Bjchabd 11. Least 7th December, 1874.