CORRESPONDENCE. "OBJECTOR" ON "SPECTATOR.

Tuapeka Times, Volume V, Issue 249, 7 November 1872, Page 8

CORRESPONDENCE. "OBJECTOR" ON "SPECTATOR.

(To the Editor.)

Sin, — In your issue of the 4th- inst. there appears a letter signed "Spectator/ in which the Writer makes some Observations respecting me as the objector to certain agricultural leases on the Bald Hill Flat. " Spectator" says he Was "surprised to hear me urge .untruthful .observations against applicants for agricultural leases, and also present" a petition to Mr. Warden Carew." Apparently "Spectator" has remained in such a state of astonishment that he has forgotten to mention what the untruthful observations were. L certainly presented a petition against the leasing of, any mGre auriferous land on the Bald Hill Flat for agricultural purposes; and I can inform " Spectator " that the majority of the signatures to the petition were those of .miners who had been years in the district, and were just as welLqualified by experience to judge of the auriferous nature of the flat as " Spectator" himself. By bis judicious use of personal pronouns, " Spqcfator " can be easily identified as an irrepressible individual who is a self-constituted guardian angel to the settlers on the Flat, and, although for the most part unappreciated by them, the " irrepressible " is always to be 'seen, on the occasion of any disputes, anxiously watching over his proteg&s, rejoicing in their victories, or, when they are defeated, whispering words of consolation, wiping their eyes, and advising them to try another round. He has rode this hobby to such an extent that it has produced a morbid state of feeling, approaching to monomania, which causes him to take jests for realities, and casual remarks — forgotten by the speaker almost as soon as uttered— as parts of a deeplaid conspiracy against the sacred soil of his beloved Flat. A harmless jest about sluicing the last cockatoo into the Molyneux, is passed between two ■persons sufficiently intimate to cause no offence to be taken ; this is reported to the "irrepressible,"- who broods over the idea until his distorted imagination conjures up a horrible vision of the future. . He imagines he is surveying the scene of his former greatness ; the farms have disappeared from the Flat, and nothing is to be seen but sluicing claiuis; a sudden commotion attracts his attention; a party of demou diggers have captured tbe last and greatest of the cockatoos at the point of tbe sluice-fork ; they drag him to a claim where the water is pouring over the face ; in vain the poor man endeavours to bribe his captors with a present of Jiis inestimable butter; alas! he is in the hands of men- 'who know not the name of pity, and all the butter in his basket will not save him now ; he is thrown into the seething water; and as the •' last cockatoo " disappears in the torrent, the demons give vent to a sigh of relief, and breathe a fervent prayer that their victim may not choke the tail race: then all is (t hushed save the hoarse murmur of " the rushing waters, blended with the despairing howls of the broken-hearted guardian .angel. "Spectator's" letter evinces" the same morbid feeling throughout, and affords a striking instance of a man (otherwise shrewd and practical) losing his head as soon as he mounts his hobby. ■ Does any one make a statement opposed to his crotchets, the "statement is untrue." Is evidence forward to prove its correctness, the '• evidence is given | through spite;" and should he find' general opinion, against him, it is a proof of the " extreme hatred " people I have towards him for the part he had taken at the elections '; and he says (if there is any: sequence in his incoherent | ravings) that "the vilest epithets have been hurled at the settlers " for the same reason. It is" almost" incredible i that any man could write such unmitigated " bunkum respecting a district notorious for its political indifforence, where the most enthusiastic politicians rejoice over Macandrew's election be-cause-they -have won a new bat, or bewail Shepherd's election because they had . bet jl box of paper collars against him. The idea of accusingsuch people of bearing political hatred could only have germinated in the brain of a lunatic. Let me advise " Spectator" to endeavour to get'rid of > these morbid fancies, and for the future .bring a little common sense to bear on any public questions he may be mixed up with ; he will thereby save himself from ridicule, and be more likely to succeed in his, object. — I am, &c,

W. F. Forrest. Alexandra, Ocf + 29, 1872.