CORRESPONDENCE.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 43376, 22 September 1908, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

(We are not responsible for the opinion expressed by our correspondents.)

To the Editor.

Sir, —If you will kindly allow me I will answer “Visitor’s” and “Fairplay’s” letters in one. First, Visitor has evidently picked out of my letter, of 15th, bits which he thinks will suit his own ends best, cannot he read correctly ? if so, why does he not put in my own words, why leave out the word “ many ” —“Young men, many of them of the

rough sort.” Again, there is not a word in my letter of the loth inst about tourists or visitors coming here. For Visitor’s information I may give the following case, which happened in No. 2 Bath some few weeks ago. While I was in the bath-house a man, badly under the influence of drink, came in, walked past the office, and before the attendant could put him out began to undress on the bench, not in a dressing box. Mr Mills hurried out of J the office and asked him for his ticket (he had none) and then seeing the state he was in ordered him out of the bathhouse. The man at fiist was not inclined to go, but as Mr Mills took up a determined stand he left. Now I feel sure if it had been a young girl who had had to order this person out he would not Jiave left as quietly as he did, certainly not until help had been sent for, and trouble given (and this might just as likely have happened at the private baths as at No. 2). Yet Visitor makes out only angels come to Te Aroha, and that there cannot be any rough ones amongst the many visitors who come here during the year. A nice angel Visitor is when he cannot even put my letter before the public as I wrote it, but must pick it to pieces for his own ends, and yet he would, I suppose, call himself a fairminded man. Well, if he is a sample of a fair-minded visitor what must the other visitors be like ? Who said the lady bath attendants were looked down on by visitors or anyone else ? I did not nor did I insinuate such a thing. I said, and again say, it is no position for a young girl. A position which is fit and proper for a married woman is not always so for a young girl. Again, I did not mention blue blood in my letter of 15th inst-., don’t believe in such bosh, and am certain the medical profession know nothing about it, but certainly if by blue blood visitor means good breeding, he absolutely cannot have a drop in his ' whole body, and if I was “ Selector ” at j the Railway Station (as Visitor recommends in his letter) his chance of getting into the town would be nil. As for trying to get at the Government by a side issue. . I am not doing that, and if Visitor was not a fool, as well as evidently partially blind (none so blind as those who don’t want to see), he would have seen long ago that I am going straight for the Government on account of the way they

have treated a lady clerk in their employ by dismissing her when she never got notice at time of appointment that her services would only be required for six months. As for an apology, well, I don’t intend to apologise until I have said or done something which calls f< r one. Certainly I would not apologise to . Mr Visitor, and as I am standing up for | justice to be done a lady clerk (and I Visitor and others sire trying to belittle all i my actions for doing so.) The ladles do | not require one, except from Mr Visitor i himself, who has attacked me simply because I am standing up for justice to be j done a woman, a thing it seems impos- ] sible to get from the Government of this '

country. The time liiis come when women ought to take their place in Parliament, and have one of their own sex to see justice is done them ; at prcthey are trampled on. Now, Mr Visitor, apologise to the ladies, mop up your quarter drop of blue blood (if you have | any) and retire. Now for my old friend with the unappropriate name (in his case anyway) of Fairplav. So he did not know what was go ; ng to happen, poor fellow, he evidently is not !a prophet. He sujfe he can “ hear the canno is rattle, and jge music all so grand.” Certainly he n(ay do so, i but it will always be (in his ease) from a long distance, where the

noise may reach but the shells cannot —a good safe distance, that is his mark. Music is more in his line but Bands do riot play during action. For my reply to Jiis question “ Why one young person §hould not get a chance as well as another,” I refer him to my letter which immediately t llows his own in your issue of 19th inst., which is in repiy to the low insinuations made by Fairplay’s ctjuin, Mr Sentinel. Fail play tells us he never liked red herrings. Well, let him pat shark, plenty good enough for him, Who cares what he likes, or dislikes. Not I for one, perhaps like Mr Visitor he too will talk a lot of bosh about blue blood, and therefore cannot eat red herrings, “So beastly common don't pher know dear boy, and not tit for a drawing—man. As for trailing anything before him, he need not be afraid; his little trilby’s would fairly knock out (in more ways than one) any forward trail. I cam not aware I over said anything in any of my letters which even the most stupid person could read as implying that there ought not to be any Governors or Rulers (Mr Fairplay sometimes finds a ruler useful, so I understand) and that it was only Bill, Tom, Jack, or Harry’s advice which ought to be taken, and to say this of an old soldier is only making a laughing stock of the person who says it. Again Fairplay, like Visitor, leaves out part of my letter, evidently for his own ends, cannot even quote my words correctly (but then he never liked red herrings funny is it not, that both he and Visitor should take the trouble of leaving out the same word from my letter. What I said to Visitor 1 say now to Fairplay, I think it disgraceful of the Government to insult any

young lady by offering ]ier a position fjke the one they did in the case of this Jady clerk. Fairplav makes out I said it Was a disgrace to earn a honest living ; I never said anything of the kind, but I can tell Fairplav, what many people in the street have told me they consider is. a disgrace, and that is, attacking under a nom-de-plume a person who has signed name to his letter, and a very low thing to do, and it is only ours like Fairplay, Looker-on, Visitor, or Sentinel’s sort that would do so, '1 he latter’s loiter is simply a scurrilous production, condemned by cvefy&ne who has read it. I certainly do say, handing out a ticket and a towel are different things. Xo doubt many of those who hand out towels (no disgrace in doing sol could take their place in the ticket office if necessary, but still there is a difference which even Fairplav (blind as lie is) must • be able to see. Mr Fairplav assures me (after picking my letter to pieces and going for me for all be is worth) lie has no idea of stirring up strife, and that I am preaching a Holy War against women, what bosh. I have before me at the present moment a letter from a very strong and influential Women’s League jn New Zealand thanking me for bringing the case of the lady clerk to the notice of the public, and for all I had

done in the matter, also that they would thank me through the medium of the Press. Does this look like insulting the ladies or peaching a Holy War against woman. No, not I, but Mr Fairplay ought to apologise to the ladies. He, like others, has only attacked me because I am standing up for a wrong which has been done to a female to be righted ; and this in a Christian country where, when a man standing up for justice to be done a female everyone attacks not only him but the profession by which he has earned a livelihood, and that profession keeping the enemy from British shores enables Fairplay and his brother curs to carry on their business or teaching (as the case, may be) in peace and comfort. I thank Another Female Voter for her able letter in your issue of 19th inst,- and only hoped the female voters here will not forget the advice given in it when the proper time comes. —I am, etc., If. F. W. Lyoxs-Moxtgomery.