ORIGIN CORRESPONDENCE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume II, Issue 426, 8 September 1877, Page 3

ORIGIN CORRESPONDENCE.

[We wish it to be most distinctly understood that we are not responsible for the opinions expressed by our correspondents.] —: «, A REJOINDER. TO THE EDITOR OF THE EVENING MAIL. Sir,—A letter signet! "A. B. T." appeared in yesterday morning's issue of your contemporary re the lecture delivered l>y Mr. Ellis the other evening. "A. B. T," while deploring the meagre attendance thereat, accounts for it—lst, by the fact of the evening on which it was yiven being that of the meeting of the Young Men's Association ; 2nd. by the lecture not being advertised long enough l>i forehand ; 3rd, by the prices K'ing double what they (in the opinion of " A. B. T."l should be. ir

To the first objection I have to answer that, curiously- enough, very few of the community of Oamaru hmnv enough of the affairs of these "Young Men," or their meetings, to have been aware of such a stupendous event as one of the latter being iixed for that particular evening, and even had such knowledge been vouchsafed them, they, and probably (itill it not in Oath) the "young men," would have willingly given up their evening's amusement (;) to hear some Minstrel troupe perforin. Lad any such been in town. That the lecture was not given notice of some time previously was attributable fo ti.e force of circumstances, Dr. Ellis having only been asked, and consented, to deliver it a few days previously. As to the prices c arged, "A. B. T." should bear in mind that the lecture was in aid of the Mi chanic.V Institute, a cause reckoned by the, perhaps, ungodly more wort Uy of support by the general public than even that Association known—on the hums a -non btcciido principle, I presume— as the " Young Men's." In conclusion, I may state that the noble forty who so unselfishly withdrew themselves from the attractions of a lecture on a subject of the highest interest to well educated people will doubtless reap the reward of their heroic conduct in the approbation they must naturally receive from the rev. gentleman at their head ; and should the Mechanics' Institute suffer pecuniarily from their absence, they can also lay as a "flattering unction to their souls " either their spiritual improvement at their meeting and the salvation of two shilling, or their having been instrumental in stopping for the future the utter, the irredeemable sinfulness of any amusement —other than their own—on Monday evenings. Trusting, however, that these "young men," or rather Mr. "A. B. T.," will see. in course of time, the utility of encouraging public institutions, even at the loss of such intellectual and improving discussions as take place every Monday evening at the meeting of the Y.M.A., and hoping you will not look at this letter in the light of a cheap advertisement of any sueh dissipation,—l am, &c, TODDLEKINS. [The above letter has unavoidably been held over for several days.—Ed. E. 31.}