CORRESPONDENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 49, 26 February 1878, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of tub 'Evening Mail.'

Sir,— l never feel very desirous to take part in any paper controversy, and I had well nigh made up my mind to leave Mr Gray and the City Council to finish their little game between themselves, but a letter from Mr Gray, which appeared in Saturday's Colonist, has induced me again to put pen to paper, and I only hopa I may be more successful in making myself understood by you in this thau it "would appear I was iu'my former letter. I say this because of the tortuosity and severity of your strictures thereon. The report of the proceedings of Council which appeared in your issue of the 6th inst. has been well and fully treated of iu the letter by Mr Gray, which appeared in tht Colonist on Saturday last. It will, nevertheless, be necessary for me to make a remark or two regarding it. I formerly de-. scribed said report as a malevolent perversion of facts, and I have not yet aeen any reason to change my opinion regarding it. You soem to think that in thus expressing myself I have made use of words, the true purport of which lam ignorant. I confess lam not a classical scholar ; still, I think I may^ safely aay that, in correspondence, lam not in the habit of using language, the meaning of which I do not understand, although I sometimes prefer using a word of elastic signification for the sake of imparting a little energy or zest to an otherwise tame remark, or for the purpose of legally stinging an adversary. For instance, one may employ the word tact instead of humbug, and yet may make the true, and somewhat offensive, intent perfectly obvious ; aud, on the other haud, one may Bay, regarding a certain action, that it gave evidence of a mischievous and tortuous disposition, instead of describing it aa a malevolent perversion of facts •, but then, you see the former mode of expressing the sentiment would not seem ao pithy, and, therefore, it was that I chose the latter, and I see no reason to conclude that I have erred in doing so, although I confess that I really meant nothing more than will readily be conceded by auyone acquainted with " Autolycus," namely, tbat he is just as full of mischief and waywardness as a monkey, and that, in this matter, he had indulged his propensity to the fullest extent. Your reporter did oa the 9th inst. pas3 over, without one word of comment or commendation, Mr Gray's primary and praiseworthy object, while at the same time he gleefully and sneeringly indulged his love of mischief by expatiating on an inadvertent and unimportant remark made under a momentary feeling of irritation. I need not ask if this was right on the part of your reporter, for I think it must be admitted by all that it was clearly unjust. You quote a resolution passed unanimously at a meeting of the Council, at which were present Messrs Everrett, Little, Levien, and Hooper, and you then ask — Does our correspondent really mean to aver that gentlemen of such standing as those named above are also malevolent perverters of the truth? I answer No, No, a thousand times No. But why propose such a question? The resolution alluded to has not the remotest connection with the sentiment expressed by me regarding the conduct of your reporter. The resolution is as follows: — " That this Council is of opinion that the imputation of dishonesty made against the City Surveyor by Councillor Gray was entirely uufouuded and unwarranted." Now, Sir, it seems plain to me that the censure implied in this resolution is directed solely against Cr Grey, and therefore has no reference whatever to any other thing or person. You, nevertheless, infer that the Council having passed this resolution it necessarily follows that the charge made by me against your reporter is equally applicable to the gentlemen composing the meetiug at which the resolution was passed. Surely your inference is unsound. I may say that I approve of the resolution in that it repudiates the imputation of dishonesty made agaiust the City Surveyor; but I condemn it because I consider the censure it passes upon Cr Gray is wholly uumerited, seeing that he is not the author of the imputation. You conclude your very severe strictures by remarking that I have been guilty of transgressing the bounds of courtesy and even of common decency by umking use of language, the purport of which I did not fully understand. Tbis woqld alnio3t seem to convey an insult; and yet as I do not see wherein I can have given you any real^cause of offence I am not willing to believe that an insult is intended, and consequently will not treat it as such.— l am, &c, , Principiis Obsta. [W« are at a loss to know how to deal with ope who entertains such extravagant notions pf toe elasticity of the English language as does this corresponden! of ours. He accuses a writer in our columns of having been guilty of " a malevolent perversion of facts " and on being taken to task for making so grave a charge he laughingly replies " I really meant nothing more thau that he (the individual referred to) is just as full of mischief and waywardness as a moukey." A stranger selection of words to convey such a meaning we certainly never met with before. "Principiis Obsta " is not willing to believe that any insult to him was intended in our '.' tortuous and severe strictures " ou his last letter^ antl he is r|ght, as, personally, we hold hnn iu high esteem, as He probably knows. When, however, he euter3 into a newspaper controversy and at the very start converts it into a very rough-and-tumble game by the language he imports into it, he must not complain if in the encounter he receives some hard knocks. With such a correspondent it is necessary to speak very plainly indeed, and we therefore repeat that in the charge he made against our reporter that he had been guilty of <'a malevolent perversion of facts," ho did beyond all question or possibility of being misunderstood accuse him of telling a wilful and deliberate falsehood, and further, notwithstanding j that in this respect he contradicts 1 himself "a thousand times" that \ Messrs Everett, Little, Levien, and Hooper must of necessity be included in that charge because they had borne public testimony to the truth of our reporter's statement, " Priucipiis Obsta " being perfectly well aware of this at the time that he wrote, We must also reiterate what we said before, that iu making use of such lauguage, he did, provided that he understood its purport, transgress the bonds of courtesy and even of common decency; if he did not, he should have kept clear of a uewspaper correspondence. -Eo, N.E.M.]

Theatrical benefits are not always advantages to those for whom they take place. Mr Thatcher writes to a Wellington paper to say that out of £52 18s realised at his recent benefit there were nearly £40 expenses. Mr Thatcher is also a heavy loser by Mr Levy, the cornet player, levanting to California. In the present prevalence of whooping cough the following will be read with interest:— ln what may be called domestic science an Austrian docter has discovered that the peel of the apples and orauges ia by no means to be eateu with impunity. The little black specks thereon are fungi, and the discoverer for the sake of experiment scraped a number together, aud introdnced them into his lungs, and was at once punished and rewarded with a violent attack of whooping cough. It is probable that 50 per cent, of children who suffer from this disease, owe it to the consumption of the apples and oranges, after which the infantile mind so pertinaciously hungers. A conteuipory writing on the posibility of war between England combined with Turkey and Russia says:— "Both the armies of Russia — that in Roumelia and that in Asia Minor — would be carrying on operations at an enormous distance . from their bases of supply, and with the Black Sea closed against them. She would, in point of fact, have to re-commence the war, after having made enormous sacrifices of men, and in the face of great financial difficulties, with a nation overflowing with wealth, and with unlimited war material at her command. For it must be remembered that England has the whole of the Mussulman, Persian, Tartar, and Afghan subjects, numbering 50,000,000 of men, to draw upon for recruits. She has two native armies in India, the one consisting of 140,000 men, and the other, miscalled police, numbering 190,000 ; both officered by Englishmen • and the cause of the Cresent would rally round her flag the followers of the Prophet, from the African seaboard to the Caucasus, and from the Danube to the remotest corners of India." The Edinburgh correspondent of the Dunedin Times states that Miss Thomson, a young American lady, afforded the people of Edinburgh a novel excitement on the 30th November, by having a favorite thoroughbred bay mare belongiug to her shod with gold shoes. It seems that two years ago, when on a visit to Edinburgh, Miss Thomson bought this animal, which she took back with her to America, and of which she became inordinately fond. Her affection took the novel form mentioned, the creature being duly shod, on its return to Edinburgh with its mistress, with shoes of solid gold, the nails being of the same metal. The shoes are half an inch thick, aud the value of the set was stated by the Scotsman to be £200, The Review, however, put it down at between £400 and £500, which is probably nearer the true amount. The horse was shod at a forge in St, James Place, at the head of Leith Walk, and then taken to the wellknown stables of Mr. Peter Moir, not a hundred yards off, where Miss Thomson mounted her steed, and rode it up and down the yard, to the admiration of a crowd of gaping loungers and gamins. In the evening she and her horse left Edinburgh for London, en route for America. It is said that these gold shoes will last as long as ordinary iron ones, though it is difficult to see how that can be the case. The probability is that unless Miss l homson keeps a sharp look |out after them,. they will disappear before their durability has been fairly tested. In the course of a lecture recently delivered by Dr. Beane, on the " History and Progress of Surgery," he narrated the following* racy anecdote with reference to the employment of anaisthetics by the late Sir James Simpson in obstetrical cases in Britain: — "AU the old hostility of religion to science was vehemently aroused, and a perfect storm of objurgation roared around his devoted head from pulpits innumerable. The Bible was ransacked I for texts to prove that he was flying in the face of Providence. Fiercely denunciatory sermons were preached agaiust him, and he was told that to use chloroform was 'to evade the primal curse on woman.' But he was witty as he was brave and persevering, and he retorted ou the clerical bigots thus:— 'My opponents forget the 21st verse of the 2nd chapter of Genesis. That,' said he, « is the second of the first surgical operations ever performed, aud the text proves that the Maker of the universe, before he took the rib from Adam's side, for the creation of Eve, caused a dead sleep to fall on Adam.' It is said that when some of his clerical assailants read this brilliaut retort iu one of his pamphlets they, literally foamed at the mouth aud danced with rage. Ido not wonder at it. They were blown to pieces by their own guns." Mr Hutchison, who occupied the honorable position of last on the poll at the recent Wellington election, is about to try his luck at Wairarapa. The Post says of him: — Defeated, but still undismayed, Mr Wm. Hutchison has girded up his loins, and prepared for another political contest. He started for the Wairarapa to-day, with the intentiou of further canvassing the electors there in view of the approaching contest, which will take place when Mr Buuny finally decides to accept his billet and resign his seat. Well ! Mr Hutchison has great pluck, and persistent assertion. Beaten at Wanganui, beaten at Rangitikei, beaten at the Hutt, and twice beaten for Wellington city—this five times defeated candidate is bent ou trying his fate again. Air Hutchison evidently thinks it is well to be brave. We have not the heart to utter a single word of discouragement.