CORRESPONDENCE.

Marlborough Press, Volume I, Issue 49, 8 December 1860, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of the. Marlborough Press. Sir —I beg to request the insertion of the following in your open columns, if it does not contravene your recently-estab-lished standard of decorum. Should it do so, you will insert it as an advertisement. In coining to a decision in the matter, I hope you will not allow yourself to be swayed by either self-interest or a desire to get the best of a political opponent, through that sensitive organ of feeling “ the breeches pocket.” Your editorial remarks of last week furnish “ so apt a vindication” in my case of the truth of the old adage, “A false friend is more dangerous than an open enemy,” that I must claim the privilege of making public certain facts you have omitted. These facts being truly stated, it remains for you to furnish “ an apt vipdication ” of your consistency in having attempted by a side-wind to damage the effects of my letter by a paragraph in the very same article in which you make such a high-sounding declaration of neutrality. The facts I desire to make known are First, that I delivered you my letter per-

sonally, and at your request consented to your use of the editorial pruning knife in regard to any words you considered objectionable, so that you did not use the privilege to alter or destroy the sense. Secondly, that you read to me that portion of your remarks you state you had written (though I had a suspicion at the time that I had seen the same in print before), prior to your receiving my letter, and I expressed approval of the course you had decided on; and I still think you would have done better in not being the fii’st to depart from it. Thirdly, that in the list of signatures to the requisition to W. H. Eyes, Esq., J.P., M.P.C., I find the following names: —William Budge, reputed editor of the Press ; George Coward, T. W. Millington, publishers of the Press. If your time is not fully occupied, perhaps you will make an attempt to furnish an apt vindication of the consistency of certain parts of the address of the candidate (W. H. Eyes), to whom you have pinned your faith. The parts I refer to are in substance, though not in words, as fellows: —“ I feel bound to oppose Mr. Weld for this district, because many acts of the ministry, of whom that gentleman is one, do not meet with my approval; yet I am prepared to give him my warmest support for Picton, believing him entitled to the higher honour of representing the capital of the province. The author of the reply, let him be who he may, would have done well to have called to mind the quotation, “ Nc sutor ultra crepidam he would then have thrown aside his production in disgust, as “ Telum imbelle sine ictu .” If you succeed in furnishing an apt vindication of the consistency of your words and acts in this instance, or of those parts of the reply signed W. 11. Eyes, to which I have drawn your attention, you will most certainly furnish an apt vindication of a claim to the chair of logic in any university in the w r orld, and may reasonably be allowed to assume as the motto. for your armorial bearings, “ Palmam qui meruit ferat." I am, &c., John Godfrey. P.S.—Having formerly been in connection with Punch, should you be inclined to give me the necessary space in your “open columns,” I will undertake to furnish sufficient matter in his stylo to fill one page in each issue of your paper, from this date to the day of poll, and in consideration of your kindness of December Ist, I will furnish the same cost free. [Mr. Godfrey entertains very extraordinary notions of an editor’s functions. His permission to revise his letter did not impose on us the duty of doing so. We carefully abstained from expressing any concurrence in or dissent from Mr. Godfrey’s opinions, bet object to bis manner of expressing them, and published his letter entire, in order to justify ourselves in hereafter rejecting any similar communications, and surely Mr. Godfrey is inconsistent in making it a ground of complaint. We do not feel called on to reconcile any real or apparent inconsistencies in Mr. Eycs’s address, any more than to translate the latin of which Mr. Godfrey makes such copious use, or point out the aptness of its application. The three persons named by Mr. Godfrey will, of course, exercise their right of private judgment, without holding themselves accountable to Mr. Godfrey for doing so.—Ed. M. P. j To the Editor of the Marlborough Press. Sir—l fully concur in your views as to the proprieties of newspaper correspondence, and think you would have been quite justified in rejecting Mr. Godfrey's letter, but since, with cruel indulgence, you have pilloried him in print, he is a fair target for a paper pellet. Mr. Godfrey accuses the supporters of Mr. Eyes of doing what is “ ridiculously absurd.” Now I have no personal objection to be called a fool—indeed I have a rather humiliating consciousness that the appellation is appropriate—but it is pleasaut to be one of a large majority, so I shall not desert the fools’ Paradise to join the wise men of Gotham. Mr. Godfrey says that his “only object in drawing attention to the subject is to put those electors on their guard who are in the habit of signing the first requisition presented to them.” This caution -would have been well-timed two months ago, when he was endeavouring to obtain signatures to the requisition to Mr. Weld long before it was proposed-to bring forward Mr. Eyes. It is unkind of him now to taunt those who appended their names with their facility of compliance, and to tell them, as the veiled prophet of Khorassan did his proselytes — Yc would be fools and victims, and ye are. Mr. Godfrey asks some questions, which I shall notice seriatim. To the first, I give an unqualified affirmative. Mr. Weld, whatever his zeal for the interests of the province, has not, that I am aware, taken any pains to make himself acquainted with them, but has given his attention entirely to his ministerial functions. To the second, I answer that whatever be the respective talents of the two gentlemen, Mr. Eyes has sufficient ability for our purpose. Mr. Weld's standing in the colony is no qualification for legislative duties, any more than his stake in the province makes him eligible as our representative. ! Mr. Godfrey says that a certain “ state-

ment the advocates of the pretensions of Mr. Eyes must be well aware is false.” I reply that we do not yet know that Dr. Monro is in the field for Picton, or Mr. Weld for Wairau; if they are, to whom and when have they communicated their intention to offer themselves ? Mr. Godfrey says “ the success of Messrs. Weld and Monro is placed beyond a doubt.” Of course, as he makes the assertion, he believes it to be true, but I think he is mistaken. The frog in the fable has more parallels than one. As for Mr. Eyes, he certainly presents a comfortable rotundity of appearance, but not such a degree of distention as to justify any apprehension of the alarming catastrophe anticipated by Mr. Godfrey. I quite agree with Mr. Godfrey that “ the electors of Marlborough are becoming more awake to the onerous duties devolving on them,” as I believe they will show in a very different manner to that so confidently predicted by Mr. Godfrey, I am, &c., An Elector. To the Editor of the Marlborough Press. Sir —Through the medium of your columns, I would point out to the Electors of the Wairau, that they have been deceived by persons going about amongst them, making false representations, telling them that “ Mr. Weld would stand for Picton, and the Wairau would be open to a new candidate, knowing at the same time that the Picton electors have requested Dr. Monro to represent them, and that Mr. Weld expects to be elected for his old district of Wairau. Money obtained upon false pretences is punishable by law. Where is the difference in principle between obtaining a shilling by a misstatement, and inducing a man to attach his signature to a document, by representing it to be accompanied by different circumstances to what it really is ? In one case a man can recover what he has been defrauded of by appealing to a Court of Justice. In the other, his own dignity and the force of public opinion oblige him not only to withdraw his support, but to denounce the schemes of those who would entrap him by a misstatement. How indignant must be the feelings of those electors who, honouring Mr. Weld as he justly deserves, for his long services and strenuous exertions on behalf of this province, find that they have been ensnared into treating him not only with discourtesy, but with the greatest shabbiness and ingratitude. Mr. Weld’s enemies try to depreciate his services, but they cannot deny that through him we have been relieved of the incubus of Nelson, and are now in the enjoyment of seeing our land fund spent upon public works of utility within our province, and that Nelson cannot saddle us with any large portion of her public debts. They cannot deny that through him Marlborough, with its population of less than fifteen hundred, can elect two members to the General Assembly, when in no other part of the colony is there a population of the same number that can return more than one. I am, &c., Don’t be Shabby. Marlborough, Dec. 5, 1860. To the Editor of the Marlborough Press. Sir —Highly approving of the remarks contained in your editorial article of last Saturday, I refrain from all personal invective, which you so justly censure; but I would submit one question for consideration, which I feel assured no one will venture to answer in the affirmative—ls it consistent in the Superintendent to take an active part in political matters, when he was the person complaining of Dr. Muller having done so ? But whether such conplaint was founded on fact, I will not now discuss, cui bono ? I am &c., Not an M.P.C. Blenheim Dec. 7.

To the Editor of the Marlborough Press. Sir —The letter signed “John Godfrey,” published in your paper of last Saturday, requires some notice, not on account of its intrinsic merit, but that it contains assertions, which, unless disproved, might (though that is barely probable) mislead some. What Mr. Weld has done for this province I have hitherto been unable to ascertain, but what he has not done, I am quite willing to attribute to his ignorance of its requirements, owing to his protracted absence from the province. There can be little doubt but that, co-operating with a practical man like Mr. Eyes, he will be of very great service, if returned for Picton; and I very much regret to see the determined persistency of those who are attempting to force Dr. Monro on that district. It would have been far better if the writer of that letter had omitted anything about “subterfuge” &c., as his statement that Mr. Weld is coming forward for the Wairau district, and that Dr. Monro is in the field for Picton district, is mere supposition, the former gentleman not having issued any address, neither (to my knowledge) is he aware that use is being made of his name, nor can lie be informed for some

weeks. Dr. Monro lias not issued any address, though I believe a requisition was hastily got up and signed by a few, but it remains yet to be seen whether the electors of that district will act as free and independent men, or quietly submit to have their member thrust on them. As far as I am able to ascertain at present, there is a very strong feeling in Picton district in favour of Mr. Weld. Dr. Monro’s political views are too well known to give him much chance of success there. With regard to the personal attack on Mr. Eyes, that gentleman may most aptly quote Swift:— On me when dunces are satiric I take it for a panegyric. As to the entire production, every sensible man must thing Ex nihilo nihil jit. I am &c, Scrutator. Blenheim, December 6, 1860.

To the Gentlemen signing the Requisition to W. H. Byes, Esq., J.P., M.P.C. Gentlemen —I feel both surprised and humiliated by the course you have thought fit to take with reference to our late member, F. A. Weld, Esq., and I certainly do not agree with Mr. Eyes when he calls your requisition a very flattering one. I think Mr. Eyes himself must have mixed a little flattery with his ink when he wrote that. What do you expect to gain S' Mr. Eyes tells you that he entertains a “ high respect ” for Mr. Weld, which even caused him a “ little difficulty,” in answering your requisition: that, “should Mr. Weld come forward for the Picton district there cannot be a doubt of his return,” and that “ as an elector there he should himself certainly give him his warmest support.” So you see you have little to gain by electing Mr. Eyes in preference to Air. Weld In principle they agree, or Mr. Eyes would not promise “ his warmest support.” Now, considering this, can you approve of the course you have taken ? I do not believe that } i 'ou can. Knowing, as I do, that some who signed the requisition to Mr. Eyes did so from being told that Mr. Weld was coming forward for Picton, T cannot help thinking that many of you are in the same position. Of the originators of this movement I am thoroughly ashamed, and to them have nothing to say. They have treated Mr. Weld with unmanly rudeness. Mr. Eyes will yet recal his consent to your requisition, given from a too condescending disposition, and, rest assured, will not enter into a contest with one for whom he entertains so high a respect, and to whom he has promised his warmest support: so that you may be saved the disgrace of opposing one who has served you faithfully and well. I am, &c., An Old Settler.