COLONISTS AND THEIR TRADUCERS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1223, 18 March 1880, Page 2

COLONISTS AND THEIR TRADUCERS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE OAMARU MAIL. : Sir, —Two more thick-skinned ones, Messrs. " Household " and " Weka," have entered the breach in defence of savage ink-slinging, and what a jolly mess they have made of it. If these two rash ones would only peruse the original article,., they would find that it is not such foolish youth as they allude to who came under the displeasure of your oontemporary, but the parents—fathers as well as mothers—the daughters, and the teachers. Now, supposing that some cases of ruderudeness occurs on the part of some " smooth-cheeked youths of this town," how in the world can this be an excuse for blackguarding the parents? Sir, I submit that not one statement has yet been made, in pretending to answer my letters, which affects the ground; I originally took. " Weka " must surely be aware of this fact, that if the charges; made by your contemporary are correct, then " our girls " are loud hoidens, and so encourage passing remarks, from not only " smooth-cheeked youths," but also such as are " bearded like a pard." : If some of the parents are boorish, no wonder that some of the offspring ire loud; but as the result of personal ex-, perience, I maintain that amongst our' colonists boorishness is the exception, and that our colonial young men and maidens are as well behaved as those of any other part of the world. My letters

are simply in condemnation of an article which charges all our young maidens With being loud hoidens, their parents with being vulgar boors, their brothers with being larrikins, and school teachers with being anything but ladies and gentlemen. I trust that before Messrs. " Beware" or " Weka" again rush to their writing desks, in defence of any statement, they will take the trouble to consider who and what it is they are defending, and whether in so defending they are not actually condemning. Sir, I with regret entered iiito this discussion, I with disgust leave it, for, if the original accusations are correct, then all our colonists and" their progeny have most undesirable proclivities, but if they be false, as I assert they are, then we have the most horrible spectacle, of an editor, backed up by outsiders, indulging in the inglorious arid wicked task of heaping unmerited obloquy on the devoted heads of the very ones in whom the prospects of the Colony are centred. I am, sir, Phlox. Oamaru,. 18tn March. .

TO THE EDITOR 03? THE OAMARU MAIL. Sir, —With regard to a local re the price, obtained by the Messrs. Dalgleish for their wheat, we. would correct you on several points. Three hundred bags of the wheat were sold by us at 4s f. 0.b., bags 9d, terms net cash, to an Oamaru firm, and the 1200 bags to a Dunedin firm at 4s 4d, delivered at Dunedin, bags Bd, less 2|- per cent. Previous to closing with the offer of the Dunedin firm we were ; offered a very slight advance by an Oamaru merchant, but hardly worth our while to pass the party making the first offer.—Yours, &c., Connell and Clowes.