CORRESPONDENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume X, Issue 223, 4 September 1875, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

« * We are desirous of affording every reasouabla facility lor the discussion of public subjects; but it must be understood that we are in no way responsible for the opinions expressed by correspondents. To the Editor of the 'Evening Mail.' Sir— ln your last evening's issue I see Mr J. lt. Dodson takes up the cudgels in defence of Mr Curtis, but I suspect it is not so much to defend him from the charge of "blowing " as to bring before the public, rightly or wrongly, the fact, that although at present under a cloud, he (Mr Dodson) will again appear at the Council Board, and is slill alive to the wants and wishes of the citizens of Nelson. It is perfectly true that he met i me a few davs ago, and addressed me thus, | "Do you wish to immortalise yourself? If so. write to Mr Curtis, and get Nelson included with those citi« a in which the Mayors are elected by the people " I .snid I did not agree with the principle— that as the citizens elected Councillor, l thought they wou'd be best calculated to elect for their head or chairman the one most likely to conduct the business to their satisfaction, especally as they have the privilege of electing one from outside their body. It appears now that with the bad taate or want of judgment which has usually characterised his public actions hie has tak< n upon himself the task of writing what is certainly not a fact— that tlie ratepayers, or at least a large number of them, have expressed a wish that the Mayor should be elected by themselves. This must ba an

emanation from his own mini, probably drawn from home influences, certainly not from his knowledge of a large number of the ratepayers for all the Councillors, without one exception, stated at the meeting of the Council hirid last evening, that they never hid beard any general opinion or wish.expressed on the subject. I therefore consider such a statement, as I mentioned in the rouncil last evening, misleading, and an impertinence on the part of Mr J. R. Do Json as n private individual. I have heard of the immortality of the soul, and of beer, but never of the immortality of a colonial Mayor, except in a foo s' paradise.— lam, &c, Joseph H. Lbvien, _. _ Mayor. City Council Chamber, Sept. 4.