ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1285, 20 May 1880, Page 2

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

THE ELECTION. TO THE EDITOR OF THE OAMARU MAHi. SiK,—Mr. Roberts charges me, in this morning's North Otago Times, with abusing him. I leave the public to judge whether this is the pase or not, For my own part, I never knew a cause to be improved by abuse, or won by ill-considered personalities. I take my stand in this matter on the broad principles of Liberalism. Mr. Roberts would do wisely to do the same.—l-am, &c., W. F. KubfEAR.

MR. ROBERTS' RETIREMENT. TO THE EDITOR 0<? THE OAMARU MAIL. Sir, —The following paper is the one which Mr. Roberts agreed to retire upon, acting under the advice of Mr. Thomson and myself, and' the signatures attached are sufficiently numerous to justify us in our opinion M r - Roberts was adopt? ing a consistent and honorable course in contemplating the step. This will be a conclusive answer to " Countryman," who asks in this morning's paper, "Can nothing be done to ascertain which of the two can obtain most support ? : W. F. Kinnear. Oamaru, May 11, 1880. To W, H. S. Roberts, Esq. Dear Sir,—We, the undersigned Liberal electors of Oamaru, with much regret, respectfully request you to re-consider your intimation to contest the seat in Parliament rendered vacant by the resignation of Mr. Hislop, for the following reasons— First, wehavg discovered from good sources that a large number of the Liberal tpwn and country electors call for the return of another gentleman (Mr. George J ones) ; second, that Liberal prinpiples demand a sacrifice of individual interests, the end in view being the return of a Liberal member for Waitaki; third, that to put up two candidates on the same ticket would destroy the unity and confidence of the Liberal party, and probably ensure the return of a Conservative. Trusting that your sense of the position and well known desire to promote the Liberal cause, will influence you to withdraw from the contest. —We remain, yours sc., John Thomson, W. F. Kinneab, Alex. Gordon, Thomas Keen, [And six others, out of a total of eleven Committeemen.]

Here follow. ; the signatures of those who arp fayorable to Mr. Jones' return:— James Gerrie James JJiphardspn R. Hamilton Henry Sidon Wm. Abernethy Matthew Cfrant A. Headland ' Benjamin Williams Alex. Johnston Andrew Gray E. B. Atkinson E. Clarkson B. W. Hayes W. Baker George W. Draper G. Baker C. Bentley, sen. F. Duguid R. C. Lindsay T. Liddy James Henderson R. Bennett Peter Nelson William Dawson Wm. Mohan Frederick Watling Henry Littifield William Anderson Thorna* Patterson George Booth, junr. Daniel M'Carthy James Roxburgh James Thompson John Wi son Thomas M'Grail James Winton Hugh Marwick Donald M'Leod D. Henderson T. Every Eugene M'Carthy Francis Waterworth William Cargey. John Hedington James Henderson Alexander M'Donald Isaac Perriton Thomas Tait James Hern S. Pratt Archibald Weir H. J. Edwards Henry Sprake . James Williams William Rygall John Hamilton George E. Garard Daniel Roxburgh Alex. Familton Thomas Thompson John Wauch W. M. Turnbull Alex. Gordon Geo. Wilkinson William Y. Matches Alexander Webster Japieg Pqrtepug Henry E].lis Thomas jjaldie Joseph Graham John Sweeney John Lewis William Morgan James Ward Thomas Gomer Thos. M'Connell Charles C. Hall Alfred Smith William Cairns John Clegy Alex. Gow John Smith F. G. Brath'erton' W. C. Shepherd Henry Raine Wm. Rayner Alex. S. Davidson John Emslie James Bee R. D. Hervy M. Henderson John Andrews Tom F. Liddle J. Culling David Munro George Cullins Alexander Young Wm. Jackson Thomas Fit?g}bbop James Wansbrough Thomas Watkius John Jaakson Archd. Stewart Thomas Hartley ( Neil Campbell James Familton Henry Hodgson John Cagney John Hodgson *W. C. M'Bride William Phlock Charles Kearns William Morgan William Copley Alexander Bennett Hugh O'Brien Thomas Keen Patrick Croft Alex. Watson William Glass Wilii'am T'eet'; F. E. Cook Robert Maodonald John Byrne R. L. Rule Stephen Smith John Bain Wm. Smeal John D. Mitchell. David Hay I. Hurst James King W. J. Smith G. L. Grenfell John Liddell T. E. Hub', ard J. M. Wansbrough Jihn Burns R. Crouqh Thos, R. Kerr W. Maifcland W. J, A. Sanderson W. Hay james Watson C. Bentley, jun. E. Sincock Thomas Morton Ihomas Henderson William M'Kay James Paterson James Marshall Levi Gale A. Johnston Hector Morrison Alex. Gilchrist Wm. M.'F; Pollock Isaac Johnston Peter Murphy Donald Sinclair John Tait Thos. Bowie J. H. Hogan James Pater.sop James Hogan Thos. Bowie It. Hayes " Frank Dunlop W, A, Tpdd Angus Ross And a large nuinber of other signatures, which will te published in future editions.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE OAMARU MAIL. Sir, —Every well-meaning member of the community wjll endorse the remarks made in your leader in yesterday's Mail respecting the tragic occurrencs of Sunday last. But what I should particularly wish to call attention to is the deliberately false statements made at the inquest by either one or othor of the witnesses examined.; The boy Finn, according to your report, distinctly swears that both he and. the deceased were served with alcoholic liquors by O'Grady, who received payment for the same. He states that'-Dick paid three shillings for the drinks, and O'Grady said he would owe him the sixpence," Q'Q-rady, op thp other Jiajid, positively swpars'that he received nq money, and ojily supplied the lads with one drink each, Now, sir, I must appeal to the powers that fre to

insist upon a full investigation into the matter. There were twa . ather pers9ns present at the time, so thatl there should be little or no difficulty id arriving at She truth, the whole truth, and if wilful and deliberate perjury has been committed, is it to be allowed to go unpunished with impunity? It appears very improbable that Finn should have any motive for giving false evidence, while on the other hand there is every reason why O'Grady should endeavor to protect himself from a prosecution for sly grog-selling. It is well known that'there is a sly-grog shanty in thislocality, where cards, dancing, and other kinds of revelry are indulged in under the protection of. a bottle license. Complaints, I am informed, have from time to time been made to the police, but they state that they are powerless to act without further information.

Is it not monstrous that such places should be allowed to exist, in many cases within a stone's-throw of a. well-conducted hotel; and yet, throughout this district every clump of houses has its store licensed to sell by the bottle, which, I have no hesitation in saying in the great majority of cases, would be unable to keep open their doors a single month but for the profits derived from sly grogselling. It behoves the Licensing Commissioners to use the utmost vigilanoe to the characters of applicants before granting these licenses ; and _I sincerely trust that they will give this matter, with its harrowing details, their careful* consideration at the next sitting of the Court. Inquisitor.

WHO PLAYS THE DEVIL. TO THE EDITOR OB* THE OAMARU MATT.. Sir, —There is but one man in the Waitaki district whose nature is such that he could claim to be the writer of the letter inappropriately signed " Candour," and published in this morning's North Otago Times. With what inordinate selfconceit does he impudently imply in his opening sentence that the hundreds of settlers who have pressed me to come forward are wanting in a proper estU mation of probity. " Should Mr, Roberts desire to earn the gratitude of every man who regards truth as a paramount virtue, he will contest the election," says he. Who is " every man ?" " Candour." He it is who is the selfappointed mentor of the electors of Waitaki —the nominator of M.P.'s, and the embodiment of all that is just, amiable, and intellectual. But has this gentleman monopolised all the intelligence of the electorate? Is his judgment of s.uch a superlatively superior description that the little he possesses is more valuable than the aggregate judgment of over 1700 electors ? I will leave the electors to give a practical reply to these questions on the polling day. " Candour" says that " Mr. Roberts owes a duty to those Liberals (and I am one) who Regard a pro* mjse made qs a promise to be reverently adhered to." I am glad that "Candour" has such a high estimation of the virtue of adhering to a pledge, and that he is a Liberal. These two qualities doubtless cover a multitude of sins. It is, too, gratifying to find that "Candour" expects probity in a candidate as .well as in a representative, for we in this district happen to know that it is sometimes a rarity in an M.P. The poetry is prodigious. In the representative of the district " we expect to find a man who does not ' seem assent when rriost he plays the dev^l' " —plays the fiddle!—Fiddle-de-dee, What nonsense for a man to write who plumes himself on the possession of so much wisdom, and sets himself up as a dictator to a whole electorate. One would think that " Candour" has never seen .the inside of a Parliamentary Chamber—that he has never read a newspaper. He prates so much of the necessity for political virtue that we would think that hg is ignorant of the faot that it is a rara avis. Or does he possess a too intimate knowledge of the trickery of hon. members, and penitently longfor reformation ? His reference to Mr. Reid is as uncalled for as it is insulting. People may differ from Mr Reid politically; but that gentleman's "moral culture" will compare favorably with that of the majority of aspirants for political honors—or even with that of some members and ex-members of Parliament. He, however, inserts what might appear at a first glance to be a conciliatory clause. He says that undoubted confidence may be placed in Mr, Reid's word. This he does, not so much to prove Mr. Reid's moral superiority as my moral decrepitude. He bases his unfavoi'able opinion of my character on the assumption that I promised " Not to oppose Mr. Roberts, but to give him every support." I have already confessed that I promised Mr. Roberts not to oppose him, but, again, I deny the truth of the second portion of this statement. Under ordinary circumstances I would feel surprise that a man who professes to hold truthfulness in such reverence" should so utterly fail to his}se}f praotioe that principle, Candour" has not written in "the interests of any moral principle— he has not written in the interests of the Liberal cause. He is Mr. Roberts' champion, and because the electors prefer another, his vindictiveness has been aroused, and he is the victim of strong personal animosity. We shall see whether or not I have " forfeited the good opinion previously entertained by many respectable Liberals," and whether " it would have been much wiser to have sunk my ambition and kept faith with my party." Neither personal ambition nor personal spleen will, I hope, influenqe eleotors in their selection of a candidate, although 1 1 hold that personal ambition is a much more admirable characteristic than that spitefulness which is born of unreasonable obstinacy, and which would lead a man to sacrifice not only his political principles, but every principle thftt' is held in esteen by rightthinking men. I"■ turn a Conservative ? " The transmogrification would not be so easy as it appears to have in the case of " Candour." Is he not insisting upon the splitting up of the Liberal party, and its defeat under a miserable •subterfuge ? In conclusion, let me repeat that I considered myself absolved from my promise not to oppose Mr. Roberts from the moment I was informed by his committee that he had again" signified his intention to retire from the contest. Relieving that hes intended to stand byhisresolution, I immediately wrote to several of those friends who had desired me to become a candidate and announced myself. lam not responsible for Mr. Roberts' singular vaccilation.® Nothing will now induce me to change my in-: tentipn to stand but therequest of the electors—not even the railings and slanders of . Mr. Roberts' friends. | am, &c., ftEQRGB J ONES.