THE WANDERER.

Wairoa Bell, Volume V, Issue 230, 29 December 1893, Page 4

THE WANDERER.

In my last ndt-es I bade farewell to your readers, but after reading- «Ult shameful article in your contemptible contemporary ot December Ist, I feel that I cannot and will not retire without having something to say upon it, for a, more cowardly and atrocious effusion it would be difficult. to conceive and it is both painful and difficult to imagine that any individual protes^g to have onosspafk uommou manliness atom

j fiould g oemean nimself as to be guilty or writi ing and publishing such a contemptible, cowardly ! and scurrilous attack upon a, defeated candidate l and upon one of the most honorable men in the i electorate. Let anyone take that editorial dis- ! play of cowardly animus and study it carefully j and what will they find ? nothing but a tissue i of shameful and glaring mis-statements, a torrent | of mean vituperation poured out on one to whom j the writer of that article has on more than one j occasion been under a deep debt of gratitude ; upon a man who is so vastly superior to his traducer that it would be a crying shame 4 o mention them in the same breath, upon a man who is generous, of strict integrity, and whose moral character is above reproach. Is it not, ' therefore to be regretted that we have amoDg us an individual who will stultify himself by publicly exposing- his vindicitive feelings in such a manner. His impudent statement that unworthy efforts had been made to hoodwink the electors into supporting under false pretences an opposition candidate, may be treated with the supreme contempt which it so richly deserves, and we may fervently thank heaven that it was the unworthy attempt made to foist upon the electors that incompetent and inexperienced young puppet who ,so magnanimously took the field ‘ without any hope ’ of gaining the seat which proved abortive. That wielder of the scurrilous pen accuses Mr Trounson of want of ability, education and experience to fill the office he aspires to, another cowardly accusation ; and the accuser knows it. Such a statement is nothing more or less than a direct and deliberate insult not only to Mr Trounson but to + he twelve hundred eleetors who voted for him and thereby placed their confidence in him, and the man who would make such an accusation ought to be ashamed of himself, while we have only to notice the miserably small number of votes polled by the cherubic candidate to see where the opinion of the electors as to the want of ability etc,, comes in. It is painfully evident they considered the cherubic one wanting in these respects to a deplorable extent. Unfortunate!;,• for the writer of ‘ that article ’ the eleetors in this district are not likely to forget the fact that that individual tacitly admits that F. J, Dargaville was shoved forward 10 split the votes and so keep out an honorable man who would honestly have watched over the best interests of the district which that writer has so repeatedly told us had been so shamefully neglected. What glaring hypocrisy he shows to be sure ; and yet this inconsistent individual would cooly try to hoodwink us into the belief that he is ‘ the only man for this district,’ In another part of that exhibition of puerility the old individual says ; .But we regret to notice that the gumdiggers of Maropiu, Babylon and Kaikohe allowed themselves to be misled and stultified into voting for one who is their common political enemy, but how will he feel when informed that those diggers rejoice in the fact that they were not idiotic enough to be misled and stultified into voting for a puppet who would undoubtedly have been the laughing stock of the House. But now we come to another part of this virulent article which is the allusion to the truckists and importers of cheap and foreign labour. Now this we all know is nothing but a paltry exhibition of pett< spite against Messrs Mifcehelson Bros., another of *the oft repeated doses of private and editorial spleen and which doses are so oft repeated that they have become perfectly nauseous and we have indeed become quite tired of being called upon to read the twaddle about the importation of aliens etc., which that writer is constantly giving- us In writing thus I wish it to he distinctly understood that I cave nothing in common with the firm in question, bat am merely writing from a sense of justice and for the simple reason that the insinuations and accusations made against them in your contemporary have most conclusively been proved to be absolutely false. Messrs Mitchelson Bros, pay away in this district alone, thousands of pounds per month in hard cash, they are I believe the largest employers of labour on the Wairoa, paying good wages with regular weekly payments, all their employees speak in terms of praise of them, while in all their business transactions they are generallv admitted to be just and honorable Under these circumstances is it possible to feel sufficient contempt for a man who will so persistently use the columns of a public journal to vent Ms own private feelings of animus and petty spite against such a firm. I for one think not. JSut now we come to the ridiculous wailing part of the business. He alluding to the gumdiggers asks in an agonising- way—Who can aid men that will not aid themselves ? Poor fellow ! yon are in great grief no doubt, but you may rest assured the diggers do not want any more of your aid (?) they have had quite enough of that and had to pay precious dearly for it, and as for assisting them through the columns of your print, kindly do not attempt, anything- of the sort, for you will only do far more harm than good, for people have been so nauseated with the scurrility appearing in your columns, that after glancing at the paper they invariably pitch it on one side with the disgust and contempt it merits. As regards Mr Trounson’s defeat at last election , that gentleman certainly has nothing to be ashamed of, but may justly feel proud of tlia large Dumber of electors who came forward on such short notice and plainly showed their respect for and g-reat confidence in him and it would have been much to the credit of the writer of that abusive article had he remained quiet after his own ignominious defeats instead of making- such a painful exhibition in a public print of his gross inconsistency and malevolence. It .is indeed pitiable to behold a man who ought to be looked up to by everyone in the district lower himself to such an extent as to pen nntruthful and abusive articles in a journal over which he has so much control and by such conduct turn frpm him many who would otherwise look up t0,.-him with respect.— Vincit , <jui ss