The Manawatu Times. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1878.

Manawatu Times, Volume III, Issue 6, 13 November 1878, Page 2

The Manawatu Times. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1878.

Otth Foxton contemporary has been pleased to make the following remarks m its yesterday's issue m referring to Mr Loudon: — "The scathing denunciation of him, written not many months ago, and which is well remembered by the residents of Manawatu, was, we believe, the honest opinion of our Palmerston contemporary, and although ho has now taken Mr Loudon under his wing, and holds him up as a candidate m every way desirable, yet every statement ho made at that time is known to be true." The writer is perfectly correct m stating that any strictures of ours" upon Mr Loudon were the result of honest conviction ; but when he asserts that we have " taken him under our wing, and hold him up as a candidate m every way desirable," he is simply attributing to us his own conduct with reference to Mr Thynne. We have stated that Mr London has been an able, energetic, and faithful representative m the past, we also stated that Mr Loudon's zeal led him to assume a position m which he was not warranted, and to make accusations against the editor of this paper which were not founded upon fact, and we took the earliest opportunity of informing Mr Loudon m unmistakeable language of his error, and there the matter ended. When the editor of this paper was of opinion that Mr Thynne made a mean, disreputable use of a letter confided to him on certain conditions, he took the extraordinary course of denouncing the action at a sitting of the Council, aud this at a time, bo it remembered, when he could not bo accused of having taken Mr Loudon under his wing. We do not at all wonder at the remarks made by our contemporary, or that our conduct should appear a puzzle to it. According to its creed, it is impossible to bestow censure upon a public man and afterwards refrain from flinging dirt at him, or striving to hound him out of political life by every base and disreputablo means. We never said that Mr Loudos was a candidate m every way desirable, neither did we say that if Mr Thynxb were not returned it vrwld be a national calamity, but we do say that, m our opinion, we consider Mr Loudon a far more desirable representative than either of the Herald's brae* of demigods, and we must admit that that is not saying much mMr Loudon 's favor. We do not wish to quarrel with our youthful contemporary unnecessarily j we have hitherto studiously ignored the remarks of speakers and the letters of correspondents reflecting adversely upon it. But lei it not misconstrue our silence, or abuse our generosity. We know the difficulty of its position, and are prepared to make allowances for it. As long as its stabs are given m the shapo of three-column twaddle which may be penned by some antiquated pedagogue, we cau smile, and congratulate it upon tlte amount it will bring to its coffers (r 1 ), but we might jnst inform it that we see nothing inconsistent m cur j conduct which has proved such an \ enigma. Wo have given Mr Thfnne I our opinion privately even more strongly than we have done publicly, and that would not prevent us at some future time m freely^ bestowing credit were he deserving of it, and the very worst we wish him is that he will give us the pleasure of making good our words.