THE WALLACE ELECTION.

Southland Times, Issue 1173, 29 November 1869, Page 3

THE WALLACE ELECTION.

(to the editor op the times.)

Sir, — The public surely must have had nearly enough of this celebrated election. Scarcely a day passes that some Otago paper does nob contain a naming " leader," an indignant "local," or a violent letter directed against the successful candidate, his friends, or the Returning Officer. The latter is singled out for especial notice as a safe target, it being well known that it is contrary to official etiquette, and utterly out of order, for a Eeturning Officer or a Resident Magistrate to defend his decisions or conduct through the press, The letter signed " John M. Clark," in your issue of the 13th inst., deals with merely personal subjects, and I therefore reply to it ; not to defend, myself (which is wholly contrary to my principles), but to attack Mr Clark, and to retort upon him the charge of falsehood, by reiterating in the most positive manner my contradiction of the paragraph referred to, oF which he stands confessed the author. Mr Clark is naturally very angry with me for exposing him, and lean really feel for his mortification on reading the total demolition of the slander on which he had raised so much polii.ic.il capital, but I can assure him that I was utterly ignorant of hid existence until I read his letter, nor did I even catch the name of the Otago paper from which the untrue paragraph was quoted. I merely heard the falsehood stated, and aa a personal friend of Mr Cowan's (not as Eeturning Officer) in his absence contradicted what I knew to be a false charge. It is therefore most amusing to find Mr Clark assuming at once that his report must be the untrue one referred to, and rushing into prmfc with frantic eagerness to don the cap, perfectly convinced that it must be meant for him. All will inevitably draw the deduction that the cap fitted him, and therefore he put it on ;— that he was certain his report must be meant, because he knew he had sent in an in^orreot one, and he did not know whether anyone e'se had. Presto ! he se'ze3 his pen, and " begs to vindicate his character, which has been so vilely traduced." Poor man ! Even Dogberry was not more anxious to be " written down an ass," than is Mr John M. Clark to be written down something worse. f .Now for his " plan uuvamislied tale." I need not discuss the various bodily "attitudes," assuned by those present-, nor their sotto voce " remarks," however clever they doubtless thought them. 1. Mr Clark says they " arrived a little before the hour appointed." Now Mr Webster and I rode up an hour and a half before the appointed time, and Mr Brown and his supporters had then by their own account been there some time already. 2. The " small English grass lawn " into which Mr Cowan, haying no stable accommodation, allowed them to turn their horses, is an excellent paddock of 10 or 12 acres at least, ia which Mr Cowan's own horses run, and into which my horse and those of his other friends were also turned, so we all fared alike. 3. What Mr Clark calls the " outhouse •with shavings strewn about," in which he " took shelter," was the room in which the election, ■was held. I 4. Before " twenty minutes to one," the whole election was over, and several electors on their way home. 5. Their " exhaustion from want of food and exposure " (how pathetic !) was their own fault. I myself heard Mr Cowan give orders that refreshments should be supplied to all who desired it. If they chose to be voluntary martyrs to their cause, it is hardly fair to blame their host. 6. And certainly it was uufeeling, not to say inhuman, to inflict martyrdom also upon their unfortunate horses by riding them a distance they estimate at 80 miles without food, considering that there was a capital roadside inn close at hand, where the Lake Mail Coach remains all night, and where Messrs Clark and Co. need not have disdained to take up their abode likewise. So much for the ridiculous invention which has afforded unlimited pabulum to the press, and atnusemeut to those who knew the truth. Mr Cl irk's " plain unvarnished tale " is about as true as his report ; the only real " facts " he states are so " varnished " as to differ very little from absolute fiction. Let me in conclusion call his serious attention to the wise [ saying of an eminent divine — " He who tells a lie knows not how hard a task he undertakes, for he may have to tell twenty more in support of that one." — Yours, &t\, Chaeles Eofs Maetex. Martendale, Nov. 17, 18G9.