CORRESPONDENCE.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 403, 9 December 1876, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

We do not. hold ourselves in any w.»y responsible for the opinions and sentiments ex pressed by <!«>rrespondenfs. Am, communications must be accompanied by the correct name and address of the writer, not necessarily for publication, but as a guarantee of good faith.

{To tke Editor o t the j.' ount Ida Chronicle.) Kveburo Diguing*, Nov. 29: h. Sie,—Wfll' you be kind enough lo allow roe'spac* in your journalin reply to your fao_frnote-on Mr. David Messent's letter, which appeared' in your, last issue, anerit Sergeant Smith's slanderous slate•ment of wbinen at Kyeburn Diggings, wherein you state : -' We are not able to verify our correspondent's information, (here being no report of any such indiscriminate language having been used by Sergeant Smith." And further on yon say : "Neither do we be ieve Sergeant Smith in any remarks he may have made, cast, or intended to cast, any reproach upon the resident population of Kyeburn Diggings." Now, although you have no information of Sergeant Smith using the slanderous language that is imputed to him, that is no pi-oof lie did not. make use of it. What I principally object to is your going out of your way to "whitewash " Mr. Sergeant Smith, by statins you don't believe that he east, or'intended to e:tst. any reproach upon the residents of Kyeburn Diggings. I most respectfully submit that your belief in the matter is not worth anything, as by your own shewing you knew nothing abou/it.. Now, sir, I have it from good authority thatSergeant Smith, in open Court, used the following words, or words to (he same effect : -" There are only a, few women on the Jtveburn, and the whole of them are drunkards." I would just ask Mr. Smith what he knows of the women on the Creek? -I don't believe he ever saw the half of them. Mr. Messent, in his letter, puts the number at twenty-five—l think he is about correct. Mr. Smith has heen in ike district a few months, ami has made the discovery that the twenty-rive women on the Kytburn are drunkards; while I have been on the Creek for ten years, and I never saw more than two women the worse for drink the whole of the time. In regard to the statement made about Mr. .Vlcssent's hotel, I believe them to be on a par with his other assertions ; but I leave Mr. Messent to fiijht his own battle. ] eondu ->e Jjy pitying thf> unfortunates who get into bie cinches of those who ma»e such reckless stalemenis.—J am, &c,

Thos. Fok^ib