"SMELFUNGUS" IN EXPLANATION.

Grey River Argus, Volume XXXII, Issue 5396, 16 January 1886, Page 4

" SMELFUNGUS" IN EXPLANATION.

[to the editor. 1

Sir,— "Thrice, armed is he that hath his quarrel just." After deducting from your leader of yesterday *he exordium and pseudo-comic scurrility, there is not much" . that requires demolition. The letter? .posted to the Commissioner of Police, ■ Wellington, affirmed that the licensing laws were violated with impunity both here and in Brunnerton. You have elected to heap ridicule the charge against the latter place'; doe 3 your conspicuous silence admit the truth of it in the former ? Perhaps you will answer the following questions : — (1.) Ought the bars to be closed on a Sunday ? (2.) Are they open? (3.) Is s barmaid cooped up in one of the principal hotels nearly all day on Sunday? - (4.) Is it true that one of the hotels here is not much more than a brothel ? (5.) Are you a man of considerable experience re the local hotels ? (6.) Do you drink whisky and water ? I challenge you to answer these questions ; you have* struck me with Machivellian (sic) healthiness, will you answer me withJSpcratic boldness. — I am, &c, ■ -•. '* •• " Berry Cass. [The public willy be pleased to know that we have "drawn the badger," and that Smelfungus has disclosed himself. That is the most manly and straightforward thing we know of him. It was not either very manly or straightforward to write to Wellington in an informer sort of way while there was a temple of justice here in which to arraign the wrong doars. Would-be reformers of the Berry Cass type never effect anything. They are mere mischief makers, and lack the moral courage to publicly denonce and bring to task what they are ready to condemn and denounce uuderhandedly. . There is still time for Mr Cass to cover himself with all the glory of an earnest moral reformer and his'enemies with confusion — if he can, But can he ? We have not, had y the advantage of perusing his precious letter, and we are not even now in the position of knowing what he has said regarding the hotelkcepers of Greymouth. But this much may be said, and that without the slightest risk of inveracity, that if what he wrote of the Greymouth publicans is no more true than what he penned regarding the Brunnerton publicans, then he is either grossly misinformed or is deliberately saying the thing which is not. We leave him on the horns of that dilemma. Everybody in the district knows what Constable Scully is. Publicans usually regard him as one of the strictest of officers. Some even go farther with their opinions. But it will be enough to say that those who know Constable Scully are tolerably certain that neither publicans, nor any one else for that matter, are likely to boast of oxtra latitude being allowed them wherever he is stationed ; and we don't "believe Mr Berry Cass could prove anything to the contrary, even if he spied round the houses on either side of the river for twelve months together ; and he is, apparently, an adept at spying. As to Mr Cass's string of questions, which, by the way, are as impertinent as they are personal, and they are both, we still have no objection to answer them in all frankness, so as to afford him every assistance to make good his allegations, if is possible to bolster up such a series of unfounded statements. Let us say as to the (1.) The spirit of the law should be observed. . . (2.) All are open to travellers. (3.) We are not aware of such a thing in one of the principal hotels ; but Mr Cass may be, 'as it appears to be more in his line. (4.) We do not know, and have grave doubts as to the truth of the insinuation ; but we again bow to Mr Cass's wide and varied experience. (5.) We cannot plead guilty to the soft impeachment, especially when Mr Cass is to the front? (6.) Such a thing has been known — whisky sometimes ; but we stick to the truth always. Can our correspondent say aB much ? ' Have we sufficiently met Mr Cass's I " challange V J