AN ILLOGICAL LOGICIAN.

Manawatu Times, Volume III, Issue 43, 21 May 1879, Page 2

AN ILLOGICAL LOGICIAN.

The Marton paper has taken exception — as. we fully expected it would — to our critici3nj. upon its conduct, and by a paradoxical gburse' of reasoning seeks to maintain its position. So that we may not do it injustice, and to give our readers a specimen of the arguments used by that logical luminary, we print the extract verbatim et literatim : — The JPalnwston paper has an article ap? parently written to. prove that because the railway receipts have been on the increase, a falling-off m bhe timber export cannot affect Manawatu prejudicially. The Baw millers are not of that way of thinking, Would our contemporary be suprised to learn, that iox the past fortnight the sawn timber traffic on the railway has notbeen-one-half of that of any preceding similar period for several months past. During that time some mills did not send a solitary stick of timber along thp line. The firewood traffic from Halcombe was unusually large, and pressing m the demands for-carriage, and to one truck of sawn timber senji, from about the first of the raonfh, there must have, been about ten of firewood. The Palmerston paper might have known, if it had. inquired, 'that it was the threatened timber ci'isis which caused the meeting of saw -millers to be convened which took place on Saturday. The article referred to though rather laboured and i slightly illogical, is withal amusing and the : writer doubtless meant well. If the railway receipts are so much, he infers, what must be fhe trad o of Manawatu? A somewhat analogous andequally applicable calculation would be, if a plough cost so much, and a field measured so many acres, what is the value of potatoes per ton. In addition to the above bright specimen, our contemporary also came 'to the front wifh a leading, article upon the same subject, but as the arguments of the one are m direct opposition to those m thp oj;hpr, it is »only fair to presume that they emanated from different sources, particularly as the journal m question is credited with drawing its editorial inspiration, from outsido its staff. Thp paragraph infers that our article was written "to prove that because the railway receipts have been on the increase^ a -falling off of the timber export cannot affect Manawatu prejudicially." "Wo never asserted anything of the kind. In its former article / the Advocate maintained that Feilding being a bush country had to depend solely upon its timber trade, that that was declining, and that impending ruin hovered over the place. We challenged the calumny, and we brought those very best proofs, facts and figures to refute the lie, when impaled upon the horns of a dilemma the Advocate recants its former statement, and urges' that it is possible for. the staple trade to go to the dogs,' and the railway receipts increase instead, of decline. The railway returns are ihade up to the third of the month, and we supplied our contemporary with pond fide returns to the close of the past month, by which a growing steady increase has been"exhibited during the last nine months. But the Advocate is an adept m thel congenial process of wriggling, and its experience gained over the railway question quickly came to its aid, and a loophole 1 wag sought by dating the term of . decadence from, jihe past fortnight, or sinCe the last statistics were taken. This certainly is veuy ingenious, but it is a shelter which is scarcely secure enough to hide the guoss misstafcement which is hidden behind it. Well, so much for the paragraph ; now for the editorial dictum. We have seen how the writer of the first asserts tliat it is possible. for the timber trade to decline, and the railway revenue increase, while this is what the inspired editor writes :— " Deprived of an outlet for its timber, Feilding must lose the major portion of its present revenue." Here is consistency with a vengeance ! Will the writer assert that Feilding can be m a state of- stagnation, its 'mills idle, the greater, portion, of its: revenue gone, and still the business done at ifs railway Btation go on steadily increasing, for that is decidedly what he maintains? For. the compliment so delicately conveyed, we thank our, contemporary, and we deeply regret we cannot .reciprocate its. kind, attentions. Its leaders •are only conspicuous for their massive dulness, total, unreliability and interminable length ; while the paragraphs are strung together and slung together like so many onions on a string, never, creating a smile, But almost drawing tears from the eyas by their, mournful lugubriousness.