THE OTAGO CENTRAL.

Evening Star, Issue 7624, 29 May 1888, Page 4

THE OTAGO CENTRAL.

[From Our Paruamkntaky Rei'ortku.]

WELLINGTON, May 28. I have been authorised by Mr Vincent Pyke to contrad'et the statement published by the 'Otago Daily Times,' to the effect that the land concessions which it is proposed by the Otago Central Railway Bill to grant to the syndicate that is to form the line include a quantity of auriferous land, as well as land which produce an annual rental of L 400,000. The area proposed to be granted does not include a single auriferous acre, and the L 48.000 represents revenue from the total area from which the syndicate will be entitled to select their grant ; while the evidence given oy the Surveyor-General last session shows that the land to be actually granted brings in only about L 5,000 per annum. In to-night's ' Post' the following letter from Mr Vincent Pyke is published : Sir,—The knightly democrat is angry, and anger in controversy indicates the consciousness of defeat. But really he should not allow his temper to betray him into such ungentlemanly language as ho was guilty of using in his last curious production. The phrases "such a person " and " such a man " ho vo a nasty smack of Billingsgate; and then in his blind rage he piles blunder upon blunder. I have not accepted his arithmetic as correct. I said it was "a characteristically exaggerated estimate," But I verily believe that this is as near an approximation to exactitude as his mind is competent to accomplish. Exaggeration is his forte. He revels in it like a sportive youth in the briny deep. Plain, unadulterated truth is not sufficiently spicy for his fastidious taste. If the facts do not suit his purpose, so much the worse for the facts. Again, he would have it believed that I denounced the Midland Railway syndicate, and imputed fraud to the gentlemen composing it. This also is not true. I never did so. I denounced the Meiggs contract which Sir R. Stout and his colleagues tried to foist upon the country at a cost of LI 94,000 a year for twenty years, to be paid by way of guarantee, and thus I saved the country a lvmp sum of L 3.880.000. Talk of blushing, indeed ! It is ho who should blush for very shamo at the mention of that transaction. But indeed he ought not to speak of motions such as he never experienced. I know that he has never forgiven me for nipping that promising scheme in the bud, and I am proud of it. As to his nursery story. I take that to bo the outcome of his imagination. About the time when Sir R. Stout was "mewling and puking in the nurse's arms" a certain 'Springßice,'not the nobleman of that name, first introduced to London audiences nigger melodies, one of which was called 'Jump, Jim Orow.' The words quoted by the titled Apostle were tho refrain. Perhaps li" was lulled to sleop with it by his granddame in his then innocent days. In pity I bestowed it on him; I want none myself. But "why do the heathen rage so furiously and imagine vain things,"—l am, etc., Vincent Pvke.