LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 12, Issue 1002, 5 December 1868, Page 3

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed by correspondents. Sir, — Will you kindly inform me what distance a railitiaman is supposed to go to drill P I j\m called upon to go a distance of sixteen! miles. I have no objection to do my duty as a militiaman, but I decidedly object to go sixteen miles to stand on one leg, for the amusement of every idiot that the Stafford Ministry like to call-Dificers. — lam, &c, One who has Sebved. Te Apiti, Dec. 3, 1868.

"Sib, — Learning that a petition to the Governor, condemnatory of the employment of Colonel Whitmore on the East Coast, and indirectly pointing to the desirability of again entrusting to Mr. M'Lean the full power he once enjoyed there unchecked by responsibility, is in process of signature, I beg to point out that the •close secret mode of procedure in this instance^ as in previons cases, inflicts a direct injury on the country, by avoidance of that fair and full discussion in public, that matters of such grave moment to every one's interest demands. It may be there are men in this town ■who are not blind worshippers of Mr. M'Lean as a politicalman ; who believe that ■at his door lies many of our troubles ; and who, at any rate, are satisfied that his administration of matters could not possibly be otherwise than wasteful, unwise, and •calculated to plunge us still deeper in difficulty. No good is attained by attempts to ignore or cloak the -existence of such opinions amongst us. Better for all that full and free expression of thought and sentiment were invited, than to pretend to unanimity where it does not exist. — I am, &c, John Buchanan. Napier, December 4, 1868.

Sin, — In the late case of pounding in the township of Abbotsford, brought before tho Court on the 26th November — present, R. Stokes, Purvis Russell, and H. H. Rt issell, Esquires — it was the decision of th« ) Bench that the gates in question " had no- right to be there, and that the public could pull them down," &c. After the cha irman of the Waipawa bench of maj jistrates giving that decision at Waipafl -a, perhaps he will be good enough to t urn his attention to the township of Wa: tpukerau, where there exist certain gate s, commencing from that gentleman's Horn estead, leading to the Tavistock Hotel, andi on the Great North Road from Welling! son to Napier, and oblige the public by sj dopting the same advice as that given by I dmself in the Court at Waipawa — i.e., by t, >ulling down those sundry gates. Sparely, Mr. Editor, a justice of the peadj-e and chairman of the Waipawa ben<j:h of Magistrates, has no right to givej advice without acting up to it ; and ! when I see, in one case in question, gate I s prohibited on private property in the I one township, where no call exists for 1 Miose roads to be used, except occasion ally, certainly no right exists in the othe r township, where there are gates on a pi! iblic highway, and on public roads, whe; cc daily traffic exists. Tr > the other gentlemen present on the Ben! ih, I would also refer, as they are not less j out of the mire. T<> satisfy the feeling which exists amoi igst a few in Waipawa, as well as in refer)! ence to the decision of the Bench in the ca se referred to, I shall be happy to erasd 1 my gates when I see the example setn! Ie by those present on the Bench ; but 1 ; don't believe in being made a tool of,"td | suit their purposes, when, in giving theirij decision, they won't and don't act up to) it themselves. — I am, &c, : )j Jtjstitia. Wjiaipawa, 30bh Nor., 1868.