CORRESPONDENCE

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 4360, 14 January 1909, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE

V > * • Vv: ; " IfT"-'* ■ ~~ (We*re nbt. responsible for the opinion expressed oy our correspondents.; - - ■ — • ' [To the Editor.] _* —ln reading your contemporary this morning I was surprised and pained to see a local having reference to our , esteemed fellow townsman, Captain Lyohs- Montgomery, who, as a VicePresident of our local Fir© Brigade Sport'S Committee, is quite within his rights in taking exception to certain un • just criticism of Fire Brigade affairs. Captain Montgomery has earned the communities’ thanks on several occasions by taking up cudgels on behalf of people ” to whom injustice has been done, and I trust may remain long with hs to do ■similar service. Most of our towns folk fk * are too fully occupied with their business ■kT* »ffaiw to do what Captain Montgomery IUW does iu newspaper correspondence, and I mm trust he will not be discouraged by such unjust remarks as appear in the article in question. Trusting you will insert ■ this.—r am, etc., ■ T. Mclndoe

(To'the Editor.)

Sir, - The Editor of the Te Aroha Mail in to-day’s issue of the paper, under the heading of “ Fair Play ” (a thing he evidently does not understand) states that hie remarks in issue of his paper of 6th ittst.v were “fair,criticism ” and have not been denied or answered by the Committee; My letter Of 112th was written as; a vice-president of the Fire Brigade sportr and at the request of the Secretary of the Committee. About twenty events came off in dye and a half hours, yet this editor calls this slow. The result financially was a great success, bringing in, as Jit .did, net £42, whereas Morrinsville sports (which Editor headed in his paper -as a great success) brought in about £l4 net. The Editor says the Fire Brigade’s efforts are well worthy of public support; very wellj why on earth does he not give this support ? Does he think running down the efforts of the Brigade to. make the town attractive for visitors on New Year’s Day is worthy public support that he so glibly talks about. He says words to the effect that business people naturally expect that any orders for goods required for the meeting mbe distributed amongst “subre.” His subscription of 5s (which X understand the Committee are returning was evidently to have returbflH 100 per cent., but even the calculafflns of the Te Aroha Mail are sometimes wron". Why judge others by himself? For my part 1 don’t believe the business people of Te Aroha subscribe to local sports with a hope (as Mt Editor would make us believe) of getting any return for their subscription ; all'the business people whom I have met int Te Aroha who subscribe to this kind of thing are too good sports to give with a hope of gain, and I ain sure all of them will b© surprised at Mr Editor’s remarks on the matter. No money oVer the amount of 14s 6d is due to the Te Aroha Mail, and for the information of the public I will (by permission of the Secretary), let know the true account of wbat thQ Fire Brigade owe the Te Aroha Mail. ; In April, 1908, a euchre party was got up by the Fire Brigade, for which printing to Mail came to 12s 6d. Advertising was given to the News, but the Editor ot the Mail advertised (copy evidently from NeWs) also, without getting authority to do so, and afterwards sent in a hill for doing so to the Secretary of the Fire Brigade, who very naturally refused to pay it, offering howjiver; to pay at once the r»s 6d together with 2s which had been incurred for

jdance slips, making the total ram 14s 6d. MrSpdo ner refused thi-< amount but said to Mr Whitehead (secretary at that time) be.(-pooner) would accept £l in settlement: of debt. Funny if he considered £2 14s 6d was du» that he should be willing to take £1 in settlement. Now h© tells us "that repeated applications have been made for the “ few pounds” due, and that the Fire Brigade will finally be asked to pay in due course, which of course means through the Court; well f ' tun authorised to tell Mr Spooner that tneTire Brigade are quite willing to

meet him in Court over the matter, or pay him his 14s 6d whenever he wants it, put the £2 they will not pay, and what is more, he can’t make them, as they don’t owe him the monev. Mr Spooner talks of fairplay, well, that is the very' thing I have been'asking him to give theßrigaae. He stated in his newspaper of the 9th inst, :: fbat some of the Fire Brigade Sports difeuiberß are very* wrath over the Secretary's action ; thivfhe is alleged to have reported on ’ something which was not true. In my letter of the 12th inst, I told him I would defy him to state the name or names of any membdt or members of the Fire Brigade Sports Com" kuttee who told him (Bp'»oner) he or they Eerg Wrath with any action of {the sc crepkrySk-' Talso told him I defied him to state publicly the alleged something which the Secretary reported untruthfully: Is it fairplay to' any young fellow that statements like these should be made in the public press, and the Editor should not substantiate them when called upon to do so. I call them low, mean, underhand, cowardly, attacks which no man, calling himself a man, ■umld make if he cannot prove them. if he cannot do this, then all his fairplay talk is only so much rot, and not worth the rag that publishes it. Mr Spooner says ’ I write interferingly on matters that concern me not (or nought as he l puts it). Again he is wrong, as he so often is., I wrote as a Vice-President of the Fire Brigade Sports, and was asked to do so by the Secretary and members of Committee, as a Vice-President, and I was very glad to be able to do so, and let Mr Spooner see that although his rag is always telling us that “ Mightiest of the mighty is the Press,” even the mighty may be made to feel small sometimes. Again, he says, that J figured clownishly over the Domain question. Well, the labourer I wrote about was reinstated in the Domain within 48 hours of my letter appearing in Mr Spooner’s paper, and the lady clerk has instead of being, reinstated for six months, been given an appointment which, provided she carries out her work satisfactorily, •he can remain in for three years, bo with results Lam perfectly satisfied.—l am, Ctßfj . F. F. W. Lyons-Montgomery, A Vice-President of Fire Brigade Sports.