MY SLANDEROUS LETTER.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1671, 28 April 1884, Page 2

MY SLANDEROUS LETTER.

TO THE EDITOR WAIMBAPA DAILY, Sib,—ln your issue of tho 25th you are pleased to denominate a late letter of mine to the Wairarapa Standard as a slanderous letter, yet you apparently overlook the necessity of allowing your readers to judge for themselves what the letter contained. May I ask you to publish the letter, .A slander is a false statement, lam not in the habit of making false statements, and I do not think your readers will find any' false statements in the letter itself. I am completely surprised at your having so commented upon my action. You apparently forget how careful a public journal should bo in commenting upon any subject: fairly, dispassionately, and without bias. You say, "any man who has the good of the district at heart will try to raise the tone of public discussion," Exactly so; It is in order to raise the tone of public action, generally, in this district, that I am bringing Mr William Booth, and those who support him to the bar of public opinion.

Let there be no misunderstanding about this. My pen shall fearlessly expose everything inthe shape of public corruption or log-rolling, at least in my district. This matter happens to be a most important one, for the principle at stake is whether the Railway revenue shall be manipulated by the Government for the special benefit of any one man, The Harbor Board election happens to form part of the question. So far as that matter is concerned, it can be settled by taking the power of nomination and election entirely from these, the miserable and effete County Councils. Mr Boothand Mr McGregor should never have been made county chairmen. Tlrnt they have done any amount of harm, let the present position of settlers here, one with another, show. As to the railway tariff, I intend holding Mr Buchanan responsible for seeing that Major Atkinson raises the timber tariff like he litis done all other railway revenue. Major Atkinson shall not, at least with my consent, have the power to raise the general railway tariff, but except this special thingMr Booth's timber. I. state now that Major Atkinson has done that. Perhaps you will again apply your contemptuous word, " slander," to me. 1 think you should be moro careful in your use of such words, as every man has the right to comment upon the public actions of his fellows. Mr W, 0. Buchanan is the proper man to do what I am doing, and t intend to see that Mr William Booth does not wield the voting power he harmfully and, perhaps, vrronqly possesses, to close Mr Buchanan's lips, You will see, in my letter attached, that I treat Mr Booth's mill as an exceptional one, I have nothing whatever to say against tl|e other sawmills in the district; all of which depend upon a legitimate local demand; and whose business I hope will prosper, I am only too sorry to have perceived that the incidence of the wretched borrowing policy has driven into tho bankruptcy court so many of the sawmill owners; good, hard • struggling men, though not quito so able as Mr Booth. I promise Mr Booth this, that his timber tariff shall be raised, in spite of all his ability; and I advise him to resign his seat at the Harbor Board, I am, etc,, Coleman Phillips, Dry River, April 2G, 1884.