FEMALE BEAUTY.—AUCKLAND V TARANAKI.

Observer, Volume 7, Issue 237, 28 March 1885, Page 3

FEMALE BEAUTY.— AUCKLAND V TARANAKI.

The champion of the Auckland ladies writes as follows iv reply to the letter of "Honour Where Honour i,« Due," in last week's Observer: Dear Mr Editor, — Though I do not care to continue an argument with. a. writer who descends to vulgar personalities, I think her (or his) last epistle calls for some answer. The only point I yare to devote any special attention to is that in which my opponent throws off the mask in the following sentence : "She (that is myself) has not sufficient mental acumen to perceive the glaringly evident fact that the letter she objects to was written by one of the sterner sex. and not by a lady." There is nothing like making a clean breast of it. On his own showing, my opponent is an imposter and a cheat, and his word is worthless. Probably he would not stop short at forgery if anything were to be made by it. But after all, sir, I ought not to be blamed for mistaking him for an old woman. I judged him by his style. And then to think of a man, much less a gentleman, who would so far forget himself as to heap ridicule and abuse on the ladies of Auckland, into whose company such a boor as ' Honour to Whom Honour is Due ' is not fit to be received.

It is lucky for him that his identity is not known to some of their big brothers. For the information of the anonymous maligner of Auckland's ladies, let me say that Sir George Bowen was not the first to call Auckland ' the Corinth of the South.' He merely borrowed the phrase from a pioneer colonist who came here a generation before him. Was it not Governor Hobson, Mr Editor ? Anyway, it was first used by one who was perfectly competent to judge of the respective claims of Auckland and Taranaki to the palm of beauty. In conclusion, I think we Auckland girls can very well dispeuse with the gratuitous and impertinent advice at the end of the letter of ' Honour Where Honour is Due,' who seems to possess no honour at all."