The Patea Mail. PUBLISHED WEDNESDAYS AND SATURDAYS WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1876.

Patea Mail, Volume II, Issue 177, 20 December 1876, Page 2

The Patea Mail. PUBLISHED WEDNESDAYS AND SATURDAYS WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1876.

It is not pleasant to be perpetually bringing personal matters before the public, but in self-defence it is sometimes necessary. Wc have, however, to reply to certain comments made in the Taranaki News , on complaints made by lis in reference to constituting that journal the vehicle for Provincial advertisements in this district. As might be expected, the News is angry, and, like other angry people, is unreasonable, In the first place, our contemporary accuses us of ‘'•spiteful remarks.” It was an idea in olden time “ that the greater the truth, the greater the libel,” but telling the truth should surely never be converted Into “ spiteful remarks.” Wc stated what is absolutely true, without any feeling on the subject, that the News has no circulation in this district, and that it was therefore in the highest degree absurd to make it the means of any announcements affecting Patea. Still it was done, at least it appeared probable it would be done, and we simply protested against it. This the lively writer in the Taranaki >News expresses as the writing “ of an editor smarting under the pangs of envenomed jealousy.” Pretty tall writing that, but as false as foolish, and we only wonder such rubbish can find .space in any rational paper. The point at issue is simply whether Provincial announcements affecting Patea will be seen hy the public for whom they are intended, if ‘published in the Taranaki Ncivs or not. We say that they might as Well ho pasted on the hack door of a stable in the deepest recesses of the bush, and our readers will, we think, bear ns out in this- opinion ; hut because that idea is correct, there is no need for our contemporary .-to become vicious on the subject. We are'then accused of having imputed “underhand proceedings or back-stair influence” in connection with the tender. We deny that we insinuated anything of the kind, but wc assert, with the most perfect candour, that we do allege utter and incomprehensible ignorance on the part of the authorities accepting the tender of a journal published once a week, sixty or ninety miles away, as the traveller may choose, for announcements affecting this district. With reference to Major Brown’s influence in the disposal of the tender, wo most emphatically say that nothing prejudicial to him was ever for a moment intended, that wc have too high an opinion of him, as a man of honor and a gentleman, to for n moment suppose he would use any influence he might possess in any unworthy or paltry maimer. Wo specially take this opportunity of saying that such an idea was never intended to be conveyed, and to contradict our contemporary flatly in this respect. Next, with regard to Provincial advertisements, the News begs the whole question. We never pretended to have any extended Taranaki circulation, and our complaint was that it was not right or proper to put public notices affecting Patea in an unseen Taranaki journal. Apropos of circulation, however, wo are open to a wager that the Patea Mail circulates ten copies in the immediate neighborhood of New Plymouth to one the Ncios circulates i n Patea. proper. The next thing the .Mail is charged with, is having “ridiculous pretensions,” These consist simply in claiming

to have local 'announcement? inserted in the local paper. As the Haul sting 1 the News says that the Mail is not properly conducted, and quotes Ihc opinion of the “ Wanganui press,” in support of it. Surely it’tiio writer of the article has had any experience he might hare judged for himself, without having to fall buck on prejudiced persons to support that view. We have no intention of referring to recent- matters in connection with that subject, hut it docs seem contemptibly weak on the jjart of our Taranaki assailant to have to make such quotations. We can afford -to allow these harmless charges, but at the same time we repeat that to inter Patea public advertisements of any kind in such a mausoleum as that afforded by the Taranaki News, is a monstrous shame, and flagrant injustice to the people.