MR. LOUDON AND THE FOXTON " HERALD."

Manawatu Times, Volume III, Issue 2, 30 October 1878, Page 2

MR. LOUDON AND THE FOXTON " HERALD."

(To the Editor of the Manawatu Herald). Sib,— ln jour issue of the 22nd, and also m your issuo of to-day, you imply ft great deal, and say very little, and that little is said m such a way as to damage me more than if you came out boldly and said all you had to say. Now, Sir, I want no favors jjrom- you and will receive none ; but I demand bare justice, and that I will hare. For the benefit of jourself, the Elector*,' *iut & gentleman who signs himself <l A Former Supporter of Mr Loudon," I will now give you the whole correspondence between the County Council and myself and between yourselves and myself* October 25th, 1878. LETTS* TO. CSAIRMAV. To Chairman of tf anawatu, County Council. — Dear Sir,— Will you kindly read the . enclosed letter to the County Council and clerk only, excluding the public, a* I do not wish outsiders, who are not interested, to be able to criticise the matter. By doing this you will oblige. — Your obedient servant, F. Loudon. LBTTBfI TO CHAIRMAN, COUNCIL, AJND CLERKTo the Chairman, Council, and Clerk of the Manawalu Council. — Gentlemen,— lt is my painful duty to inform you that I added the words (and forwarded to the Government) to the resolutions under discussion at your feist meeting. At the previous meeting I felt sure that such words were m the resolutions, and when the Chairman said they were not, I went homa for them to convince him that I was right ; and on looking at. the- paper irt question, found no such- words were there. I felt ashamed then to say that I was wrong after being to positive before, and being excited »nd aggrieved, I added the worda above quoted, and then ever since equivocated by saying " I did not add the whole of the line," as pant of it was already m the minute-book. Conscience will not allow me to remain longer without making this- confession, and humbly asking your pardon. I have discovered that " the way of the transgressor is hard." I never was guilty of such an act , before, and sincerely hope I never shall again. I had hoped that my resignation would have eased my conscience, but it did | nott. I know I must. look, despicable m your eyes, but am still more so m my own . Thi9 matter has cost me on amount of pain, such a* I never experienced before. X had no wish, to injure Mr McCulloch, or anyone elte, but did it hastily and foolishly, and it has brought it* own punishment. Again asking your pardon, I am., gentlemen, your humble servant (m the truest sense of the word), F. Locdok. CHAIBHAv's BttPlY. To F. Loudon, Esq.— Sir, — I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt ofyoiftrletter of this date, and while with you deeply regretting the occurrence that Uas. led up to your resigning your office as one of the Councillors for the Awahou Riding, i I have found it » pleasant duty to now receive your letter, m which — >by your manly acknowledgement of the error you committed — you hare done justice to both the Clerk of th» Council and myself . I believe you did not till now conceive ths very grave importance it is to every public body tohave the record of their proceedings indisputable and unchallengible. I can only further say that I have great pleasure m accepting your letter m the spirit m, which it is written. — I have the houor to be, Sir, your most obedient aervant, Esnbsi 3. Thxkot (Chairman). LBTTEB TO BUSSBLL BROS. Gentlemen,— Please be good enough to leave out of your report that part which has reference to a matter between the County Council and myself, as it has already been dealt with by the Council, and settled over two months ago,, and is of no general interest outside the Biding. — Yours faithfnlly, F. Loudon.— Ootobw 21, 1878. 'LETTRB TO ME GBOBGB BU33BLL. Mr George Russell. — Dear Sir, — I ha^e road your issue of yesterday (which contains only part of what I said at the public meeting on the 18th instant) and also your views of my candidature, which I nave reason to believe are not the views of the' majority of the public, or of the thinking class. "Previous to the issue m question you agreed with me to leave out of your report that part that had reference to the matterbetween the County Council and myself. You asked me to write to you to. do so, which I did. You also said you would act as a gentleman and a Christian. I belieeed you, and left your office quite satisfied. I now find that you attack me on the very. point m your leading columns m a worse manner tban if you hud reported my speech as it was delivered. You have broken faith with me, and lent yourself to be the mouthpiece of a clique whose efforts hnve never been of any- public- benefit. I had hoped your paper would have been the organ of the public, and not of a few. I have now no confidence m you op your paper as a means of helping forward the interests qf thi3 plaoe, and therefore I must request you to send no more papers to me, and insert no. more advertisements of mine from this date, as I will not be a party to support anything so damaging to public interest. You also left out Gray and Damon's: questions about the Press and inserted my contradiction (m the shape of a local), which looks ridiculous. Time will show whether your notions of conducting a newspaper are correct or not.— Yours faithfully, F. LonDOK. JUBTTEB FBOM BPSSBLL BBOS. F. Loudon, Esq. — Dear Sir, — Herewith we forward you account, as requested. There is a further item of p»pere sent to your shop, but we cannot manage that until we know how many are to. be returned to the ofifre. Please kindly make up. the parcel and we will send a boy for them. Twelve have been sent since the arrangement begin, exoeptin? one occassion, when only six were forwarded. — We are youn truly. Rugjuft Bbothebß. Foiton, October 23, 1878. LttTTER TO RUSSELL BBOS. Messrs Russell Brothers.— -Gentlemen, — I enclose cheque herewith for the amount of your account, which pjease receipt, and return at your convenience. Mr Home informs me that the number of .papers sold is 29, but doe* not think that he can find tfc» btkbtteo tf (bo ucjold. You will th.tr*

fore please estimate the value of those unaccounted for, and I .willi send you »f*rthe* cheque. — Yours faithiuUy, F. LoffnW*. October 23, 1878. : . LBTTXR FBO3I BtfS&Stt. BEOS. F. Loudon, Esq.— DoarSir,— We s»know~ ledge with thanks receipt of £24. & 9A par cheque, but we also forward you further account for papers, accepting. the number- - as per your memo. It is no use bothering about the otheri. Thanking you for, your generous patronage m the p«t,'aod hoping :at some future time you will see your wey- . to change your views as to our conduct of the "Herald," and regretting again that you feet compelled to adopt the courso jtott have,— We remain, youw truly, RusMKifc Beoiskrs. END- OF COBBESPOKDfiVCIt. Now, Sir, having given all particular! re* garding correspondence). I muse now return* my defence. First, Mr Thynna had no right to read my tetter except on the condition uopn which it had been given him. This, he bid not do, but allowed' certain oi the publio to, be present, among whom were n publican named; A. J. Wliyte and another person dy the name of Dawson, who, with nenduV delight, lias since made the most of it ; and? you, Sir, ainoDg^t the rest have joined issuewith these men* and yet you haVe claimed to be a gentleman and a Christian. Ida not know how. you- reconcile or- blend gentlemanly, Christian behaviour witQi jou* utterances, as contained m jour issued of tlie 22nd and 25th. I leave the public, to. judge. You will bear m, mind, that I sjtidi at the publio meeting that' I would 1 reserve^ to myself the right to attack the papTrJEjl it attacked me. You will atao bear m iSin^ that I promised to support anything that waa for the benefit of this Riding. I a». quite consistent. You attacked m,» ; I now attack youi by the withdrawal of my tug* port (from that which I believe to. bsv . damaging to. the interests of the place) and' by this note. I sough*, at tha- public. meet«ing to impress on those present the. npew-. sity of unity for one common objeot-^th* welfare and prosperity of the place. Yio» have tried all m your power to set the* township one againjfc the other by an un.-. warrantable effort to return men to. thfrCouncil who are m many respects unfitted for it. I had no objection- whatever. t<& your efforts to return your pet candidates had you employed fail means, but to\Kik«. up a matter that w,as settled long ago war unfair, unchristian, and ungentlemanly, m. was fully expressed by the public meeting on the 18th, when Dawaon mentioned tUe matter, and asked why I had resigned; Cries of " Shame !" and "SU down!" cam* from, all sides of the buildings When Wliyte asked the question— " If returned, will you promise not to tamper with- public documents any more ?" — the same thing, occurred — cries of " Shame !."' and. ° Sit down !" I then explained; to. the meeting the whole matter, ancH have made no sgorefc" of it. since the occurrence, and still you rakeit up as though with malicious design you? ; wished to injure me, and yet professing «osuch wish. You cannot say but tha.t I hares : always tried to make your paper » success^ and help it m every possible vajr, and yet you have ranged yourself against me, and; without cause. Well, I say, do so. You. are at liberty now to do your level bftsfe. against me. You- nave proved yourself «n* worthy of your position, of my support, and un-worthy of the support of right- thinking, people. Oao of two thing* are. neceisarfin the interests ef Eoxt on —either that you amend your ways and act for tho general, good instead, of being the tool of » clique*, or else that the people band themselres to-. gether. as a company and get a Press thatwill act fairly. Another point I must nafc omit. Question by Dawsok. — Will you support, the local Press ? Loitdos.-^I will 1 1 have always done so. Davtsox. — Why did yon leave the Ma»* watu Herald oat, pf your resolution at th* Railway meeting. Loudon. — I did. not leave out the Mana*. watu Herald. I proposed the MaxawatwTihbs, the Matawatu- Herald, and: &n+ Zealander. Dkwso*. — You did not, and I call MrGray to prove it. Mr Gbay.— You did'&t include ths> IJLaitawatu Harald m your amendment, and 2 that was why I did, not second it. Mr Lottdok. — I am sorry to 6ay, gentfa. men, that you. are both telling a wilful UAt truth, and I can prove that you arc. Well, Sir I did prove it, for I got M* MeCulloch and Mr Torr to affirm that T did include- the ilatxtsoatu Herald, and you ' published this m a sort of way as to teksv the point off it. I now say again that Me*sr9« Gray and Dawson did tell a wilful untruth, k r owing the same to be untrue-whrno-tKoji-spoko, fur- I have got the very document, which document I showed to Mr Gray m» the presence of Mr J. Tf . Floww, and E. S. Thynne- Esq. X and Mr Gray admitted that the paper produced was m his handwriting^ and which paper Mr Gray tampered with, at the time it wa9 handed to him to second, by scoring «ut the &f akaw.vtct Tixbs, and inserting the Sew Zealand Times. He also, scored out the TSeuf Zealander, and inserted the Bangiti&ei Advocate. He said he would; second the- ameqdmj9n.t iti.th those- alterations. I said I would tear it up ratherthen that, which I did, but happily iti*. now pasted together, and quite readabl*with Mr Grab's handwriting on it. Now 1; •übm.it that these tricks are very mean and; underhand, and I am astonished that MrBawson should descend so low m oedor totruckle to a newspaper to get it to fight hi* battles for him. He (Mr D.) must feel hi*, own weakness rery keenly when he has to. resort to such measures. I will noS say anything at presont about your other pet candidate^ I VYQuld rafcher" he would at«. tack mo direct himself than me you as hit tool, and then I. will have a word or tir* with him. The public (as yet) have only had one man to criticise* and onjy on» fault to deal with. Perhaps it would b* as well to give them a few more namw to think about, and a few more dark spots ta consider. X now court all the opposistio* you and your candidates bring to bear. F. Lotxdo*,