ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

Patea Mail, Volume V, Issue 453, 23 August 1879, Page 2

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

[We are at all times ready to give expression to every shade of opinion, bat in no ease do we hold ourselves responsible for the sentiments of our correspondents.] EGMONT ELECTION. (To the Editor of the Patea Mail.) Sir, —In an extract which you copied from the Rangitikei “ Advocate” and inserted in the last issue of the Mail, Air G. F. Sherwood was charged with having reported his own speech for the Wanganui Herald. As tins is false, will you be kind enough to allow me to make <m explanation, which I think is due to tiie gentleman concerned. After Air Sherwood’s meeting, I asked him if he would mind reading over my report of his speech on the following morning before the Coach would leave for Wanganui. His reply tvas, “ I was asked to report my speech for the Patea Alail and I declined, and on principle I cannot comply with your request.—I am, &c.,

H E R A LD CO Rli ESPUN DENT. [The Herald's correspondent has got out of the trying pan into the fire. We emphatically deny the truth of the above statement, and either the Herald correspondent or Mr Sherwood are guilty of perverting the truth. When Mr Sherwood announced that he intended to address to electors here, we asked him if he would like to write his own speech in full, as it was our wish to give both himself and Major Atkinson fair play. Mr Sherwood promised to do so, hut at the last moment said he had been too busy, and could not attend to it. We therefore made use of our own notes. Not having a shorthand reporter, and knowing that it was impossible to take a full report of the speech without, was our only reason for asking Mr Sherwood to supply his own. Mr Sherwood did not speak for the Press, as, by the way, Major Atkinson did, yet the Herald was furnished with nearly six columns of the speech—which must have been reported verbatim. We give the Herald correspondent credit for being able to do more than a short-band writer, for, using Mr Sherwood’s own words, a short-hand-writer could not have followed him.—Ed Mail.] o DEFECTIVE CHIMNEYS. (To the Editor of the Patea Mail.) Sir, —In answer to the letter that appeared in your last issue, of Mr Woodenheaded “ Mantlepiece,” I can only say that t; e first part of his letter does not effect the question in any way. The. latter part, however, is far from the truth, as the Chimney was built a week before that stupid blockhead of a “ Mantlepiece” made his appearance, and lam certain the latter was not wrongly made, nor was it wrongly fixed. It was built and fixed against the defective brickwork as all mantlepieces are fixed, so that I cannot see how our woodenheaded friend can take the blame of the fire, considering the fire made its way through four inches of brickwork. I am also sorry to see that you, Mr Editor, agree with the remarks made by that stupid “ Mantlepiece,” as I consider the letter was only written to have a little satisfaction, because I exposed a fault iu chimney building that should be always guarded against.—l am, etc., JAMES LETT. Patea, August 22nd, 1879. o (To the Editor of the Patea Mail.) Sir, —I notice in the Wellington papers that the Maori members of the House have formed themselves into a Committee, with the Honorable Wi Parata as Secretary, their purpose being to aid

and support the native political men. Surely the absurdity of titles :SP large grants of money to our supposed Legislators has reached the climax of bathos when wo see these honorable niggers forming a Committee of treason for the sake of throwing more obstacles in the way of the law being carried out, and that the settlers (already‘half-ruined by the way unlive affairs have been conducted) should have to pay these 'creatures £SO or £GO a week lor such services—for the honorarium of 200 guineas divided over the lime of last session amounts to about that sum. Who have we to blame if wc are ruined 7 Ourselves, — Yours, &c.

Honorarium Amongst Thieves. Carlyle, 2 Ist August, 107‘J.