The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

Waikato Times, Volume XX, Issue 1669, 17 March 1883, Page 2

The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

Equal and exact justice to all men, Ot whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political. Here shall the Press the People's right maintain, Unawcd by influence and unbnbcd by gain.

SATURDAY, MARCH 17, 1883

Mit Cunningham has evidently got an idea that the remarks on the Te Awamutu Cheese Factory which appeared in our Tuesday's issue were penned in a spirit of hostility to himself and those of his colleagues who share his views. He calls our criticism an indictment, and hints that we wilfully put our imprimatur on what wo knew to be a one-sided and untruthful version. Nothing could be further from our intention than to wilfully wrong anyone. Our informants, to the Lest of our belief, endeavoured to get all the information they possibly could ; if they were actuated by malice prepense it is more than we give them credit for. But there were things vouched for by them which we deemed it prudent to withhold, and even what we did publish we felt to be so damaging that we offered our columns as a medium for any explanations the directors might think themselves called on to make. It the article in question was strongly worded, it was only because, looking to the importance of the issues involved, we felt strongly. Mr Cunningham asks us to believe that there is no such danger ahead as we were led to think, and that what little there is would speedily vanish were the present manager to leave. Now, wo take our correspondent to be a man of sense, anil, moreover, an honest man, and we are not therefore going to scout his opinion as worthless. It is possible enough that, looking at the question from his standpoint, he is to a great extent right in what he says. But, after all, his letter does reveal the fact that there have been " complications "in the factory, and this is the aspect of the case with which the public are most concerned. Upon whom most of the blame rests is quite another, though it is an almost equally important matter. We do not pretend to say that Mr Walpole is faultless ; we cannot know how to estimate his conduct until we have his version of the affair before us. But, whether lie is culpable or no, the directors are the chief delinquents ; because if the company and its manager commenced work upon a basis not mutually satisfactory, it was clearly the duty of the former to effect the necessary change without delay. Perhaps Mr Cunningham will say he tried to bring an alteration about j and we believe he did; but how conies it, then, that lie did not carry his point ? As a matter of fact, was it not because a majority of the directors were satisfied with the relationship subsisting between themselves and the manager? If not, then the board of directors must have been totally unfitted for the work thoy were entrusted by the shareholders to do. We shrewdly suspect that some people lost their temper ; very probably Mr Cunningham was one, and likely enough the manager was another. Mr Cunningham, indeed^ seems to bo particularly tetchy, for he even cavils at our use of the word " expedient," though for the life of us we cannot see in what manner the word could offend him. But to revert to the subject. Bad blood having been engendered at the outset, things probably went on from bad to worse, until Mr Cunningham's opportunity came, and he embraced it. He tacitly admits this, and we are ready to accept his view. Whether Messrs Churches and Burke based their action upon higher or lower ground it is, of course, impossible for us to tell.