A REPLY TO “PAX.”

Waipukurau Press, Issue 314, 29 September 1908, Page 5

A REPLY TO “PAX.”

(to the editor). Sir, —I notice in the columns of your last issue a letter headed “ The Debating Society and Home Rule,” the writer of which, like a number of similar correspondents in your columns during the past week, by the use of a pseudonym has placed himself in the category of those whom Disraeli described as “ mischivous varlets who pelt us with mud as we are riding past and then hide behind a dustbin.” It is evident from the lamentable ignorance of the subject so cantingly displayed in “Pax’s ” letter that a discourse on Home Rule and what it really is, and what its aims are, would not only remove the misconceptions under which he labours, but would, assuming that he is unfettered by prejudice, be the means of enlisting his sympathies with those millions of people in all parts of the world who, bound by the common ties of liberty and a desire for self-gov-ernment, are working earnestly for a cause the realisation of which will make for lasting peace and consolidation. ' ■■

occupations I will not be able to give the paper (which by the way? was none of my choosing), but as I am earnest in my wishes that no misconception should exist regarding the subject, if “ Pax ” will come from behind the dustbin of anonymity where he has entrenched himself I will try to the best of my ability to let the white light of knowledge into the darker places of his mind. If he won’t, there it ends; but I would say this to -him, in the i words of Sancho Panza, “Let every man take care what he talks or how he writes of other men and not set down at random, hab nab, higgledy-piggledy, whatever comes into his noddle,” and further, next time he feels forced into print, whether to prevent imaginary disturbances or otherwise, let him sign his name to it lest he be viewed through the same coloured spectacles as Dr Maurice Francis Egan viewed anonymous correspondents when he said “ a man who writes a letter which he is afraid to sign with his own name would lie or steal.” Thanking you for space,—l am, etc., P. S. Carroll. September 28th, 1908.