A CRITICISM.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 192, 23 November 1910, Page 7

A CRITICISM.

To the Editor. Sir, —The old adage lias it, "ne sutor ultra crepidam," which for my purpose may be fully translated: Let every critic continue to criticise, and by your goodness I hope to be permitted to follow my old bent anent the News and its editorials, i am quite aware that few things are more invidious, unsatisfactory and unpleasant than to beard the lion in his den, the Douglas in his hall, or the editor in his columns. Yet the spirit moves me to be so audacious just now. I have recently experienced pain, astonishment and pleasure by the perusal of three different sub-leaders in the News, and it is to the last sensation that this letter is due. I was much pained at reading your diatribe on the Earl of Mouni, Edgecombe, and the way you held him up to ridicule and contempt. I was very sorry that a New Plymouth paper should have so little knowledge of one of the benefactors and most popular friends of Old Plymouth as to write of him as you did. It is inconceivable that even the most rabid anarchist in that place would have held such language about one of the best of British noblemen, who, as a landlord, is universally loved by his tenants; an aged Christian gentleman verging on four score, of whom up to this article one never heard anything but good. He has long been the Provincial Grand Master of Cornwall, and having sat in open lodge with him and from knowing how the brethren of the mystic tie admire him for his numerous benefactions, his unblemished character, and that genial personality of which the tongue of good report has been persistently heard for well nigh two generations, I felt much hurt at seeing him so misunderstood. Then again, I was astonished to read in an article that i do not wish to characterise, that the streets of New Plymouth are no better now than they were four years a<ro* i That happens to be about the time °of my residence here and had I been asked for an opinion on the subject, it would have been the very opposite of yours; for so far as the streets I usually use are concerned the improvement has been most marked and gratifying. I also felt that if such public spirited citizens as the present Mayor were so strongly dealt with in the Press, it was not calculated to encourage others to take up the all too thankless, yet arduous duties of municipal office, to which as a rule more kicks than half-pence attach. A lengthy experience teaches me that there is far too little public appreciation of the unselfish endeavours of those who take up the duties of local government and one would wish to see leaders of public opinion more sympathetic than they sometimes are. It is with unfeigned pleasure that one turns to a subject worthy of hearty approval and unstinted praise. Your article on Police Spies is excellent enough to be printed in letters of gold and hung up in every police station in the Dominion. One lias heard of such individuals as those who got that poor old man into trouble being themselves found as law-breakers. There seems no comparison between their moral guilt and that of their aged victim—a poor old fellow only one yeai younger than Lord Jit. Edgecombe, by the way. It is one of the saddest characteristics of prohibitionists that they appear to lose when hot in their cause many of the best qualities of manhood, and not only become sneaks and spies themselves, but teach and incite young and thoughtless people to follow in their footsteps and thus demoralise the public mind while wishing to purify it. They give us the spectacle of a body of zealots who arrogate to themselves one of the attributes of Divine Providence—assuming to remove temptation out of our way and at the same time, as in this scandalous case, which you so ably dealt with, Judas-like tempting unfortunate persons into crime. The whole affair is too abhorrent for language, and I for one wish to thank you for so ably dealing with it.—l am, etc., B. ENROTH. [Lord Mt. Edgecombe is a worthy old gentleman, much esteemed in the Old Country for his many fine qualities. Wo made no attack on him personally. We simply referred to the ridiculous) nature of some of the excuses offered by the landed gentry of the Old Land in connection with filling in the land tax papers, taking Lord Mt. Edgecombe's letter to The Times as a text. In regard to the borough streets, we must agree to differ. We have as high a regard for the Mayor as our correspondent has, and recognise the good work he has done, credit for which we have never withheld, but, whilst believing iri a progressive municipal policy, we art not going to blind ourselves to what appoars to us to be defects in the administration of the affairs of the borough, whoever and how estimable the gentleman may be at the helm.—Ed.]

ATHLETICS. To the Editor. Sir.—Would tlif president of tile Taranaki Athletic and Caledonian Association kindly inform me when the Now Zealand Athletic Union took over the control of cwlinsr. an«l from whom, as I understood that the New Zealand League of Wheelmen has been the jrovernin" hodv of cycling in New Zealand for the past fifteen years. I would also like to know why the Canterbury centre of theN.Z.A.U. has dropped out and formed themselves into a self-governing body since the last annual meeting of the N.Z.A.U—I am, etc., INTERESTED.