MR FERGUSSON AND THE CAMBRIDGE FARMERS' CLUB.

Waikato Times, Volume XVI, Issue 1373, 21 April 1881, Page 3

MR FERGUSSON AND THE CAMBRIDGE FARMERS' CLUB.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, — My attention has been drawn to your report of the last Farmers' Club meeting, held at Cambridge, and I should like to ask Mr Runciman, through you, to be so good as explain what he means by the following statement which appears in your issue of the 14th, as fathered by him : — He says that : "Considering the circumstances under which they had placed Mr Fergusson in the position he occupies, his resignation at the present moment was most unkind." I am not aware that I was made President of the Club under any peculiar circumstances, unless perhaps, this bucolic warrior means that I begged to be excused being proposed as President. Mr Runciman also says, later on, that I am responsible to a great extent for their (the Club's) getting into the position in which they are. Now, Sir, here Mr Runciman departs from the path of truth, and makes use of, well, call it a subterfuge. He must know if he takes as much interest ! in the affairs of the Club as he pretends I to, that when the proposition was first brought before it to build the present Club-house, I was in England ; and that at the first meeting of the Club, after I came back, I denounced the building of such a house as a piece of most uncalled for extravagance. Such is yet my opinion. I must confess that lam rather astonished at being asked to explain my resignation of the high position of President of the Club. I have not, lam sorry to say, had much experience in Farmers' Clubs ; but I can tell the members of the Farmers' Club that if such a question was asked of a President or any other member of any respectable social Club, the questioner would probably be told to go to — well, let us say* Gehenna, or any other port you may like. I ask Mr Runciman for an explanation of his statement.—l am, &c, Robert Ferousson. Gorton, Cambridge, April 16, 1881.