POLITICAL HUNTING.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2079, 31 July 1890, Page 3

POLITICAL HUNTING.

TO THE EDITOE,

Sie,--I should not haye replied to the remarks, you appended to my letter, but that they were calculated to mislead your readers, and also because! wish to point oat that they were net a fair answer to anything in the letter. - , You do not show that the best English papers are guilty of impertinence, : nor will your contention that the 1 privacy of every household in the district is to he violated to supply items of news for your paper be likely to meet with general acceptance. If as you stated the items referred to created such a demand for your paper it does'not say much for-the class of matter it'generally contains. Tour so called “ explanation ” of how you obtained the information is neither more or less than a deliberate falsehood. If any of your readers care to know the truth I shall he happy to supply them with the facts, which are well known to me. Your reference to my " threats ” is amusiiig, as no part of my letter could possibly be construed to contain a threat, neither does any part refer to my “superior social. standing,’ ’ and even, you with all year.ingenuity and vivid imagination cannot shew that it does. I have now- shown that your foot note is f ull w of misstatements, inaccuracies and inventions* and’ it is to be. hoped that it is not a fair sample of your writings or the manner in which you treat your correspondents.—l am, etc., , ‘ " Philip Waebing. Milford, July 28th, 1890.

[Wo did not try to “ show that English papers were guilty of impertinence.” We said they published accounts of similar festivities. Mr Wareing has not tried te show they do not. Has the Timaru Herald not very frequently recorded that the Hunt Club were entertained by Mr So and So ? Wo did not contend that we had a right to violate the privacy of every household in the district. Surely reference to a political conversation which takes place at a Hunt Club dinner is not like a conversation between a man and his wife P What can Mr Wareing gain by trying to make it appear that we have said these things when everyone knows that we have not P Now was it right for Mr Wareing to allow an absent man to be made the subject of disparaging remarks at his table? Admitting that the social standing of that degraded creature was not worth considering it is still possible that the poor' wretch may have feelings, and was annoyed at learning that he had been made the subject of contemptuous Now honestly had he not mbr'e cause for being annoyed than Mr Waging has? The public will : be very" much interested in knowing brought:the information, and we Mr. Wareing will favor them with his name. • We said it was brought by one who was there, and the very fact that Mr Wareing admits that it was correct proves that it was one who jras there brought it, for no one else cbnld. Then where is the falsehood? What can Mr Wareing gain by calling us a liar, when everyone can see that we could not have got the information except from one who was there, and that consequently our statement must be true. As regards we came to the conclusion that the last sentence of Mr Wareing’s letter was a threat. We have since taken advice on the subject, and one man thought it was a bit of fatherly advice, another that it was a severe reprimand, another called it a stern admonition; in fact the sentence appears to have been bo stupidly: put together that, like Dean Swift’s Declaration of, Eaith, • one could read it according to one ? A -fancies. Mr Wareing said that a wide gulf separates us from decent society.' c Slr Wareing mixes in decent society we .presume, therefore he was flaunahg ; superior social standing ia, our faodi What can Mr Wareing gain* by trying to make black look vyhite when others are as good judges of color as he is. Fellow-citizens, any ol you who speaks again to us or shakes hands with us do not belong to decent society according to Mr Wareing. But we are not angry with Mr Wareing. In fact we are much obliged to him for his interesting “ Keep- them up Mr Wareing. Ton have called us a liar in a polite sort of way in this letter, call us a thief next time, A fool next, then a burglar, a rogue, a vagabond, a murderer, a suicide if you like anything, but keep up these interesting letters.”!©.]