Notes and Comments.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume III, Issue 131, 2 April 1901, Page 2

Notes and Comments.

A number ,of residents pf Sumner' have recently been much smiNBR annoyed : by receiving scandal- anonymous letters, all mongers, evidently emanating from the same source, and con* taining scandalous assertions about the character of their neighbours. The aim of these scandalmongers seems to be to sully the name of inoffensive and industrious women, and thus make the town too warm to hold them. The letters of late have be- ; come so frequent as to cause a feeling of trepidation to certain individuals' lest his or her good name should be dragged down in the eyes of those by whom he or she may he held in high respect. In some instances homes have been divided, friends made to regard each other with no friendly feeling, and these' mischief-making lunatics have even been 'the means of setting husband and wife at loggerbeads. But at last the efforts of the residents of Sumner to run to earth the perpetrators of this low; mean affair have been successful, inasmuch as he, having got wind that his identity was likely to chine to light, and endeavouring to avoid the consequences which might endue, posted tp each victim an apology for Any harm he may have done them, and saying that the statements contained in the letters were untrue, and entirely without foundation. The Mayor of the town has also received a letter appea’„ ing to him to intercede as a peacemaker, and ask those who had been wronged to let the matter rest. In several of the letters to those affected ,£1 notes were enclosed. ' Very generous and thoughtful, indeed. But’ will this counterbalance the grievous harm done? Nol One poor woman, who is obliged to earn her own living, and has to depend chiefly on her good character to carry her through, was a sufferer to a considerable extent beyond that which 4>l compeusa tion i& likely to repair.