THE WAYS OF THE WORLD.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1984, 19 December 1889, Page 2

THE WAYS OF THE WORLD.

TO THE EDITOR. t Sir, —Writing under the above title 1 in your issue of the 3rd inst., you made a feeble attempt to ridicule my , letter re the Geraldine County Council , and their water-races. You com- ( menced the article with the most consummate rot that ever issued from a weak intellect, and jou wound up only when you had completely annihilated the unfortunate man who dared to write in defence of his home. Ton say it is a pity we have no more men like the writer. I suppose you will be surprised to hear that there are several more men who are of opinion that the writer was justified in his objection to the water-races, j and mean to show their sympathy by J joining with him in trying it out in a court ofy law. There are also a class of men who never enquire into any subject before writing on it—their intellect is warped and their vision dazzled before the sight of the almighty dollar. Honor, truth, and self-respect fade before their dazzled vision, and they giggle in vulgar ecstacy at the humble efforts of a working man to protect his home. Of course, the Editor of the Temtjka Leader is not like those men I have just described. Oh, dear no! He is the soul of honor, the upholder of the the rights of the working men, the enemy of laud-monopolists and moneyrings, the essence of wisdom. He can sit in hxs office in Temuka and tell the farmers of Waihi whether their grievances are real or imaginary. See in what a witty manner he brought in the Johnstown disaster! Mr Knoweverything Editor, have you forgot the 3rd of May, 1883, when six families were washed out of their homes on the Waihi Elat, their bouses half filled with water, their fences washed away, their poultry drowned, etc. F And yet you scoff at one of their number when he objected to the i council turning six water-races into this ereek that has done so much damage before I In your issue of the sth inst. you devoted a whole column to describing the Orari-Waihi races, 1 wonder where you got your in- ' formation from, for there is scarcely ’ half of it true ? As you are so witty and wise you ought to tell us can the • council lawfully take water from the ■ Orari and Hae-hae-te-moana Rivets f and turn it into the Waihi.

In conclusion, sir, I only hope that you will employ your time more profitably in future than commenting on a subject you know nothing whatever about.

By inserting this letter in your next issue you will oblige, yours truly,

J. D. Jones.

[ln all our experience we have not come across anything like this. Mr Jones knows well, for he was told so, that the editor of this paper did not write the letter of which he complains, and that it was written by one of his neighbors who meant it merely as a joke. Mr Jones, therefore, has had no object in writing the above letter except to show off hia Biddy Mon’arty capabilities. We publish his letter just to show him up. If it had been levelled against anyone else we should have declined it, but wo have hopes that we shall survive the abuse heaped upon us. We have done our share in the interest of working men, we have done ourselves a lot of harm and made many enemies through it, and Mr Jones’s letter is a sample of the thanks w© get for it. We did not write the matter complained of, therefor® Mr Jones’s vituperation falls pointless, except in so far as it must bring ridicule and contempt on his own head, The whole thing was a joke.— Ed.]