"RUSTICUS” IN DEFENCE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 165, 30 July 1879, Page 2

"RUSTICUS” IN DEFENCE.

(to the editor op the tewuka leader.) Sib, —I have read the Tejiuka Leader ■of the 9th instant, and though (metaphorically speaking) bruised and aching all over from the severe castigation therein administered by “ Bangle,” I still survive. Having taken breath, I beg humbly to offer a few remarks. In the first place, my “ modest genius” did not make its first appearance in your issue of the 28th nit, as I have been in the habit of writing in different styles and in various styles through a period extending over twenty years, in New Zealand and elsewhere. Secondly, I had no intention of “ hinting my occupaFon” “dimurely” or otherwise, nor do i think any person not in mj’’ confidence could form any idea of that occupation from any portion of my communication ;to you. What does “ Bangle” suppose it is ? Having carefully read over what “Bangle” calls ‘‘the fragriment,” I must profess myself quite at a loss to perceive the “insinuations” I am stated by “ Bangle” to “ shadow forth.” I was not aware that any particular person had laid himself open to “ attack” in the matter of the “ Horven,” nor, if I had been, should I have made any, my object in sending you the lin.es being merely to raise a laugh, which I suppose was what “Bangle” had in view in the report re Milford. If any of your readers, through recognising the style or by any other means, should have penetrated the flimsy veil of my norn (h plume, I fee! sure there is not one but will acquit mo of the charge of malice or spleen, as well as that of a fondness for heer, which, by the bye, I never did nor shall drink at “ Bangle’s” expense. “Bangle” evidently supposes the lines I sent you to bo a recent composition. Let me assure him that they were written very shortly after the first broaching of the idea of making a harbour at Milford. “Bangle” pronounces very confidently on “ the fragriment” having been “born of sleepless nights and days.” How does he know 1 Hoes he experience so much difficulty with his compositions 1 Poor JJ Bangle 1” How much I should like to know what it is I am in danger of losing if I “ aspire to weild the keen-edged sword of satire.” My limited acquaintance with the French language| not furnishing the English equivalent for the word “pos,” 1 have consulted all the dictionaries within my reach, and ap'plied to friends for help, but in vain. Will li Bangle” kindly supply the word I It might be a salutary warning. In conclusion, as I have every wish to be decorous, let me assure all the “ hordy sons of toil ” who read your paper that I was much astonished to find that I was suspected of. any intention of saying a word to hurt or offend any of them, and that there is not one of them that lias a more earnest desire for the time when they may “open their Milford Horven” than Rusticus, P.S.—I am informed by a gentleman who this morning “ strolled along the concreit” at Timaru that the harbour there is still as “ remarkable and unsafe as reported to bo.” Geraldine, July, 1879.