OPEN COLUMN.

North Otago Times, Volume 1, Issue 3, 10 March 1864, Page 6

OPEN COLUMN.

We are desirous of affording Correspondents space for the legi'irnate discussion of all subjects of public importance; />ut, at the same tune, we ivcilt it to he understood that we do not hold ou- velvet responsible Jor opinions therein expressed.

To the Editor of the Oamaktj Times. Sru, — If, 20 years ago, I had read a similar article to yours in your last issue (on the Town Board) my first act would have been to have walked straight to the office, and have administered such an amount of cow-hide as would have been a caution to the writer for the remainder of his natural life. Such a tissue of falsehood and calumny never Would have issued from the most hot-headed political partisan in Peddlington. What you mean by " curious charges," " strange reconciliations," " spoils of office," " happy family," " purely personal passions," " violation of of confidence," "disreputable and unconstitutional proceedings." " corruption," "joining in the disgraceful," " the acceptance of a tender by a member of the Board," is a mystery I cannot comprehend. Why, Sir, you must havp been troubled with the nightmare, or have been made the tool of some unprincipled perverters of the truth ! If that article is to be taken as a specimen of the manner you intend to carry out the terms of the Prospectus — that an enlightened criticism will be brought to bear on the management of Municipal affairs— the sooner you e-hut up shop the better. It is only since your fix-st issue that I pointed out to Mr Pinkerton the advisability of the Editor making himself acquainted with the minutes and correspondence of the Board, that he might be in a position to inform the public the nature of their proceedings, and the difficulties they have had to contend with. Now, Sir, if you had done so, you would have found that the Board have not neglected the interests of their constituents— that they have taken every opportunity of urging the claims of the town on the attention of the Government — that we have had considerable trouble in getting the services of a Surveyor— that we have engaged one for six months, to take the

levels of the town, and exercise a necessary supervision over works in progress ; and if you had made inquiries as to the nature of the grants of money by the Provincial Council, you would have found that £400, for fencing Esplanade, was placed on the Estimates long before the Board was in existence. As to the £1000 passed in the Estimates, that was obtained for the purpose of taking the levels of the town and draining Tyne-street. The delay in taking the levels of the town, we could not avoid. As to the subject of '' stone v. wood," your remarks are too absurd to comment upon. The manner of expendiug the money placed at the disposal of the Board was carefully considered, and handed over to a Public Works' Committee to carry out ; and I here acknowledge the valuable assistance given by Messrs Grenfell and Glass, in taking levels and preparing plans and specifications, which were carefully considered, finally adopted, and submitted to public competition. As to the contract for fencing the Esplanade, I beg to say the contractor was not a member at the time. His election after the Board had nothing to do with ; and he is not on the Public Works Committee. For myself (Jiaoimj accepted office from a sense of public duty), I defy you to prove one of your unwarrantable assertions. I demand the insertion of this in your next issue, as a slight vindication of myself and others with whom I have acted. I' also demand a full and complete retraction of those assertions, they being founded on falsehood. I have a just and undoubted right to do so, and I will have nothing less. As to your correspondent, "J. P.," if he will apply pro per*onae at the office of the clerk to the Town Board, he can have the cobwebs cleared from his brain, without any further soft appeals to his fellow townsmen. — Yours. &c, S. Gibbs. Oamaru, March 7, 1864

[It would have been au injustice to our correspondent to have allowed Im delineation to remain buried under the whimsicalities of the Town Board. Art has nothing at all to do with our philantrophic Councilor. He is purely a child of nature — a creature of impulse We venture thib therefore as an apology for the introduction of the above letter to our readers.— Ed. O. 7.]

To the Editor of the Oauieu Times. In your paper of the 3rd inst., I notice a letter signed J. P. charging the Town Board with having spent the funds of the public in erecting a fence on the Esplanade. I am not one who is fond of speaking publicly, but the impertinent ignorance displayed by J. P., demands exposure. Surely had he taken the trouble to examine the appropriation ordinances during the past two years, he would have seen that the Town Bourd (with all their faults, had done nothing with the money spent on the Esplanade than what was absolutely necessary if the vote of iMOO, made time after time, was to become available in Oamaru. It is a well-known fact that the Provincial Government do not vote money for one thing and allow it to be appropriated to another. Trusting that "J. P.," ere he writes again on public matters, will study what he writes, and know that he is writing facts and not fiction, which is calculated to disturb the whole of the town. — I am, &c, An Observer. Oamaru, March 7, 1864.

Mokmonism. — The Mormons of Utah have held their annuul conference at Deseret, and resolved on one of the strangest experiments ever tried in acommuuity. Hitherto, every man in Utah has laboured in his oini m ay, growing wheat or anything else he pleased ; and the result, it is said, is a superabundance of certain articles. The colonists have accordingly resolved to place the whole direction of their labour in the hands of Briglnun Young, so that the resources of the State may be fully developed, and " labours better equalised." The Mormons, in fact, are about to try the experiment of communism under very favourable circumstances, with no near neighbours, no poverty, no ■» ant of land, and an able theocratic dictator to direct them. If they succeed — which is as uearh impossible as an untried experiment can be — they will have taught the world such a lesson as it never before received. A man of war to be called the Danderberg, is now building at New York. She will be the most poAverful man-of-war afloat. She is 378 feet long, 68 feet wide, and 32 feet deep. The armour on the side is 65 feet thick of timber, and 4Jinches thick of iron. On the casemate it is 3 feet of wood and 3 i inches of iron. She will have two turrets, with two guns of heavy calibre in each. She will have six broadside and cwo pivot guns in the casemate. Her rig will be half-mast with yards and sails. The forward part of the vessel, for 50 feet, of solid timber and iron, constitutes the mm. The engines are 6000 horsepower, which will propel her probably 16 miles an hoxir. - A young lady of Aberstwith has b/lhllfWH , over the cliffs, but thanks to her crinoline, wiit/i acted as a spanker boom sail, s\\epXl§hte<*-ssti*ty on the sands after her aerial voyage, 1