TATARARIKI.

Wairoa Bell, Volume V, Issue 194, 21 April 1893, Page 3

TATARARIKI.

(From our own Correspondent). THU LATE SCANDALS. ‘OCR OWN' PUTS ON HIS WARPAINT. All idea with regard to, a ■ prosecution in the case of storekeeper v. ‘ Gumdigger ? having been abandoned on the grounds of expense, I am now at liberty to comment on the letter of ‘ Gumdigger ’ which appeared in your issue of the . 30 ih ultimo, and which has caused much annoyance to many of the residents ; several persons having been more or less accused of its production, while each of the storekeepers have had to bear the ignominy arising out of the charges made of swindling, sly grog selling, and general bkiokguaidism. Perhaps none of them have suffered more in that respect than Mr Patrick Moloughney, junior Being- the only one who advertises in the local papers, he is thought by many outside the-di,strict to be the only storekeeper doing business here. This is a mistake. There are three if not four other persons engaged here in the guin trade; some recently started but none so well known to people at a distance as the gentleman named. The. Moloughneys (father and son) have been in business here about seven years and no other people in the district have done as much for its advancement. Before they came here the place was a desert. ■ with scarcely one permanent settler. And now, let any one look around and they will see many comfortable (if humble) cottages nestling among the hills, occupied by a fairly prosperous people ; with snug gardens and orchards and sig-us of impr ,vement everywhere. By strict integrity, thorough honesty in conducting their affairs and upright, straightforward dealing with their customers, they have built up a business and created a name for themselves of which they may well he proud. But tho letter of ‘ Gumdig-ger ’ through its indefiniteness places all this in jeopardy. Most of us know that the charges made are not intended by the writer to apply to Mr Moloughney but for.the information of others, more particularly those living at a distance, I will state what I know upon the matter so far as he is concerned. Please beat' in mind that the gambling and fighting etc is stated to hate occurred on Sunday the lath of March. On Friday the 10th I received a note from Mr Moloughney as follows : To W. Tatarakik.l, Esq., The.Twinneries, Dovecot Villa. D.EAR Bill, —Old m m, will you come over tomorrow and take charge of the store, as I am one of the stewards of the Toka Toka Regatta (confound it) and suppose I must attend Bring the old woman and the twins and make yourself quite at home ; you know where the lollies are kept, and if the Mrs-should like a drop of ginger beer you will find a bottle marked * Kinahan L. L. ’ on the shelf behind the box containing the ladies’ night dr—” But the remainder of the letter is on business matters and does not appertain to the question in hand. It was signed ‘ P. M , .Turn-. and here I would remark that for a person unconnected with any temperance organisation Patrick,-junr. is about as good a judge of ginger beer as ever I cams across. • As he lifts the glass to the lighA closes one eye, and critically examines this head on the top, one can see ai a glance that he is - tho presence of a past-master in the art of sampling. It unfortunately happened that ju.sb at the time little Billy was cutting his eye-teeth and the old woman was near her—’ (but never mind that) I could not get away, so I asked Mr Perry of the Tatarariki Vinery to go to Moloughney’s

I ■ T T r; u -'md m chug Molough n n r liritil the rati of Match th • sto ewas closet and ike revs in Mr Ferry's fos -ession, This he is prepared) to swear before a Justice of the Peace if called upon . I told him as he was partly interested he should write to the Bell and edear Mr Moloughney, but he excused himself as not being accustomed to newspaper correspondence and not being- able to spell very well. Indeed in some of the letters he wrote to my Matilda he spelled affectionate with a ‘ k ’ and left out the final ‘ g ’ in darling, so I told him I would do what was necessary myself. As to the truth or otherwise of the charges made by ‘ Gumdigger ’ and ‘ A Resident of Tatarariki ’ against any of the other storekeepers, I am not in a position to deny or affirm ; but if I might hazard an opinion it would be that the letters were prompted by a feeling ‘ of envy, hatred, malice, and uncharitableness ; not to benefit the general public, but to gratify a feeling- of personal spite and animosity. From evil spell king, lying, and slandering, good Lord deliver us. And now as to ‘ Gumdigger’s ’ charges against ‘ Your Own Correspondent:’ He begins his letter by saying he is not afraid of being saddled (?) ( with charging the storekeepers of swindling) . Directly I read that sentence my thoughts flaw back to one evening some ten or twelve years, ago in the old Aratapu Schoolroom, and the sitting of our local Parliament. How swift is a glance of the mind ! Compared with the speed of its flight The tempest itself lags behind, And the swift-winged arrows of light. I had the honour of being Premier and represented the important constituency of Bafbourtown ; you Mr Editor sat for Parnell and held office as Postmaster General. Then there was' Mer.dley, John Sheffield, and our present worthy and much respected Coroner, also members of the ministry, with the portly Ebenezer (Haw ! the timbaw i) as Speaker. In support of your argument you, sir, quoted a passage from Holy Writ: ‘ And he said unto them, ‘ Saddle me the ass,’ and they saddled him. But although ‘ Gumdigger ’ says he is not afraid of being .saddled, he takes every precaution to conceal his identity under a misleading signature He says ‘ Your own correspondent seems anxious to play into the hands of storekeepers ’ —l challenge ‘ Gumdigger ’ to quote one sentence from anything I have ever written which will bear out his assertion. In this article from a sense of right and justice I have endeavoured to defend one storekeeper, but if my memory is to be depended on I have not failed to take the part of ihe gumdig-gers against the stores where necessary, and more than once have defended the diggers when not one of themselves had a word to say in their own favour, Then ‘ Gumdigger ’ says I have been little heard of since I sung of Pat Moloughney’s Hall. That was on the 23rd of December and since then I b ve contributed seven rather lengthy articles, being urn average .of more than one every three weeks. It is difficult to get a subject to write upon in a district where the events of one week so nearly resemble another ; hut if I joined the clique of which ‘ Gumdigger- ’ is the mouthpiece and gave publicity to all the idle gossip and scandal circulated among them, I would h ve no difficult} iu filling your columns every week, and .deservedly gaining for myself'the ill-will and contempt of my neighbours. ‘Gumdigger’ is evidently of opinion that I should have taken notice of the matters complained of in his letter, also in that of ‘ A Resident of Tatarariki,’ In reply I would say that I have not been appointed Inspector of Weights and Measures, and that (unlike ‘ Gumdigger ’) I am not anxious to aspire to the infamous office of a sly grog informer. The remainder of ‘ Gumdigger’s ’ letter is not worthy of notice. I am sorry to occupjr so much of your space, and trespass so much on tho patience of your readers with what is to a great extent a personal matter, but ‘ Needs must, where the devil drives,’ and I can only add in the language of Judgj Conolly, ‘ Gentlemen of the jury, I regret to say there is another hour wasted.’