[To the Editor of the Herald per favor of the Telephone.]

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 155, 12 June 1884, Page 2

[To the Editor of the Herald per favor of the Telephone.]

Sir,—ln your issue of Monday the 9th inst., you give a report of Mr. Locke’s meeting at Makaraka, your report shows the same carelesness as you have exhibited in dating your issue of yesterday, (Tuesday), Monday June 9th. You state in your report that the proposition made by Major Westrup, was put and carried by a large majority, 28 hands being held up against it, this I would have allowed to pass if you had not in your issue of last evening repeated the assertion. The majority of those present at the meeting can testify that when the proposition was put to the meeting a considerable amount of confusion ensued, and but/ew of those present held up their hands, and moreover, the Chairman did not declare the proposition carried. “No man (says the Russian proverb), can rise to honor who is cursed with a stiff back-bone,” but your back-bone seems to be made of gristle. This servile conduct of yours is degrading to the Press, and has a tendency to lower and pollute the consciences of some of your readers. Some of those who came from town to attend Mr. Locke’s meeting, cannot but despise the ready and servile way in which you have acceded to their wishes. If Mr. Locke is possessed with that straightforwardness that some of his supporters take so much pleasure in asserting, this is an opportunity for him to bring you to task himself and prove the truth of the Chinese proverb, that “ The conjurer does not deceive the man who beats the gong for him.” You seem to have forgotten that “ It requires strength and courage to swim against the stream, while any dead fish can float with it.”—l am, drc., Truth.