"DRUNKS" IN INVERCARGILL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 186, 28 July 1908, Page 2

"DRUNKS" IN INVERCARGILL.

REPLY TO JIR. HARNETT. By Telegraph'—Press Association. Inverciri'gill, Last Night. In regard to the statement made, ny Jlr. Harnett, manager of the British football team, about the drunken men ho saw in Invereargill, the Jlayor states that while he cannot dispute the evidence of Jlr. Harnett's eyes, he (the Jlayor) saw no "drunks" that day. He points out that because of the football match and the unveiling of a troopers' memorial, there was an exceptional crowd in town, and he states, also, that at the football dinner Mr. Harnett expressed himself opposed to no-license. Tho Jlayor concludes; "His opinions on this question, so strongly expressed to me, may have influenced his otherwise good judgment."

"OBVIOUSLY EXAGGERATED AND MANIFESTLY RIDICULOUS." WERE THE BRITISHERS PESTERED? Wnuganui, Last Night. The Chronicle devotes an editorial ta tlte telegraphed report of an interview with Jlr. Harnett (manager of the British football team). In the course of tin', article the paper says: "When Jlr. Harnett brought his team to Wa-' nganni ho called in to tell us about it, and for a full ton minutes talked -with all the force of n tornado. He invited us to believe that while he had been forced to remain as dry as dust, a heap of other folk wero literally tumbling over olio another in a disgusting inedtey of cosmopolitan drunkenness. People wore drunk in the streets and drunk in the house. It was a case of whisky everywhere, and not a drop to drink. In short, it was simply awful, from Mr. George Harnett's point of view. His windy tirade was so obviously exaggerated and so manifestly ridiculous that we declined to take his denunciation of Invereargill any more seriously than w* did his blatant assertion that Duned'm was absolutely the most immoral city he had ever struck, that his men had been persistently pestered by young girls, and that, taking one thing with (he other, while this sort of thing might be good enough for Now Zoalandcrs, it did not at all suit an Englishman of his calibre. Now, on the eve of his departure from the. Dominion, Mr. Harnett has unburdened himself to an Auckland interviewer, and o„ tho strength of Xix own alleged experiences in the course of a flying visit to Tnvercargill. he v 'esunies to advise the electors of (he country as to the course they should advise in regard to no-license. If electors could but see and hear Jfr. Harnett as we saw and heard him, they would be able to form a pretty good idea of the value of his ailv'ce, but most of (hem would find it difficult to properly appreciate the magnitude of his egotism."