ROXBURGH.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 289, 14 August 1873, Page 6

ROXBURGH.

(To the Editor.) Sib, — Mr. John Beighton has favored you with another of his effusions couched in his usual circumlocutory style, and like the lawyer who has no case, he resorts to his usual expedient under such circumstances — abuse. In his frantic efforts to make out a case against me, ingeniously evading all reference to the subject in which this correspondence originated, he has, like the cuttle fish, emitted a flood of ink in order to cover his retreat. He introduces a great variety of extraneous subjects, among others his favorite one — -the eternal Island Block. I have no time at my disposal, even if I had tbe inclination, to enter into a discussion with him on such a tangled maze of heterogeneous subjects. As I know of no subject — the Island Block not excepted — that Mr. Beighton takes such a lively interest in as the so-called "mysterious inquisition case," I trust I will gratify his apparently insatiable curiosity by the following proposal, which, as the self-constituted guardian of the public weal and morals in the chief city of Mount Benger, he seems fairly, entitled to. My proposal is this : If Mr. Beighton will favor me by calling at my place of business, I will supply him with, a synopsis of the voluminous (if not exactly luminous) evidence adduced, which (supplemented by that already so industriously gleaned by himself at the places mentioned in my previous letter, within the precints of the Court) will at once reveal the grand mystery. To this offer 1 attach only one condition, viz., that Mr. Beighton undertakes to defray the cost of publishing and circulating the same for the edification of the British public, in whose welfare he a*ppears to take such an unselfish and patriotic interest. By the bye, as there have " been two or three other similar mysterious cases lately in this district, I would suggest that Mr. Beighton, in his capacity of local critic and historian, should distinguish them in future by, say, numbering them one, two and three, otherwise confusion may ensue. I think you will admit, Mr. Editor, that I have shown every disposition to gratify Mr. Beighton's inquisitive turn of mind ; and as I have nothing to conceal, I may add that I will be most happy to afford him every assistance in my power in his arduous self-im-posed *ask of penetrating the great Hoxbwgh mystery. — I "am, &c, G-. Mackax Roxburgh, August 7. [We must decline to continue this correspondence. — Ed. "T.T."]