OUR READERS’ OPINIONS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXIIII, Issue 3626, 12 September 1912, Page 5

OUR READERS’ OPINIONS.

THE BOROUGH CRISIS. (to tite editor.) Sir, —I have bet'n wearily waiting for * ‘Opportunist” to reply to my last letter, and have now come.to the- conclusion that he has died of fatigue in the battle. Rut an apologist, sign-

ing himself (appropriately enough) ‘ Ignorance,'’, takes up the cudgels on the dear departed's behalf, and no r sooner enters the fray thaii he “falls right in the soup.” The quotations I extracted from the “Gisborne' Times” anent Dr. Collins* attendance at-' the meeting of ratepayers convened by the Trades and Labor Council, and the sequel thereto. were a complete rebuttal of “Opportunist’s” denial that Cr. Collins held the floor for the- best part of the evening. It showed who was writing the truth, and as “Opportunist”'was left without a leg to stand on. one can readily understand his abrupt retirement from the field. As the truth is at times offensive to some people, it must he concluded that “Ignorance” has been .—pricked on the raw,” and resorts to any method to belittle one who is on the warpath for truthfulness -above all tilings. My advocacy of truthfulness and municipal honesty he characterises as 1 ‘satire, J! and then says he has looked up his dictionary and finds this definition of the word: “Satire is. the ebullition of an unhealthy mind, hankering after spurious. epigram niatical. terseness of expression.” I naturally concluded this was how Collins’ dictionary interpret- j ed the word, but I was mistaken for T find on reference to that ltijiior's dear type pronouncing dictionary, the word “satire” means: “A discourse or poem exposing vice or folly; bitter invective or ridicule.” However, lam willing to accept “Ignorance’s” meaning of the word, and will ask him what his opinion of ox-Cr. Collins is after he lias read a letter which appeared in your contemporary about the middle of June, 1908, signed “J. Clive Collins,” a satirical attack on Cr. Whim-ay, who, in the execution of his duty as a Borough Councillor, advocated the adoption of by-laws regulating the speed of motor cars, for -the safety of citizens. Accidents by this mode of progression were becoming too frequent, and though Dr. Collins had not met with any mishap, up till that time, that I know of, it appeared the can fitted him. and the result was the letter referred to above. If the word “satire” conveys the meaning “Ignorance’’ in his ignorance believes it does. I will ask him to inform his ideal. Dr. Collins, that “satire is the ebullition of an unhealthy mind, hankering after spurious. epigrammatic, terseness of expression.”—l am, etc., ‘ ‘ANTI-OPPORTUNIST. Gisborne. Sept. 11.