EAR-MARKING SHEEP.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1034, 8 October 1862, Page 3

EAR-MARKING SHEEP.

[advertisement.]

TO THE EDITOE OF THE LYTTELTOIT TIMES. Sir,—l see in your last issue the usual monthly summary from Messrs. Rhodes, Nosworthy, and Co. I do not feel called upon to reply to it seriatim : so much of it is mere repetition, and the remainder systematic perversion of the truth. I learn one new startling fact from the last effusion (or I learn some fresh fiction from each of Rhodes and Co.'s monthly reviews)—from what unknown dangers have I not unconsciously escaped! Why, sir, it appears that the whole time Mr. Nosworthy was entertaining me at Level Castle, producing the hospitable black bottle and tumblers, and anxiously seeing me to a comfortable, bed, he was momentarily on the point of hurling himself upon me and committing some frightful personal violence upon my unoffending self. Extraordinary indeed that I did not then in the slightest degree perceive what appears at present, that I was an unconscious Duncan in the hands of a ferocious Macbeth. I do not know if any influences pecuniary or oppressive have been brought to bear upon the misguided victim, S. Nosworthy, to induce him to attach his name to pieces of composition highly creditable to the talented compiler of Rhodes, Nosworthy, and Co.'s monthly 'publications (for which I trust the said talented compiler gets well paid), but Mr. Nosworthy's opinions expressed to my brother and myself are as utterly at variance with those there advanced as it is possible for any statements to be. When we saw him he expressed his regret at the course his employers had taken, and his satisfaction with our intentions. He says something about my hanging about the house for hours. I was there after a ride of several miles for an hour at the utmost, Mr. Nosworthy during that time introducing me into a storehouse and presenting me with home-grown apples, and requesting me to stay dinner. Is this a tone in the slightest degree parallel to the absolutely ferocious bearing he now amusingly represents as his on that and other-occa-sions? Such chameleon changes, where another's character is concerned, are the most unqualified iniquity.

With respect to my own part in the matter under discussion, —if to make to a manager the only proposal for a muster I was authorised by my firm to make, —if to suggest the postponement of that muster (which could have been done without detriment) should the proposal be objected to, —if when my firm's proposal was accepted by the manager and carried out in our absence, to refuse any explanation to sudden coarse threats from his principal, and to insults urged with every species of malicious vulgarity,—if to do this be what S. Nosworthy and Co. are obliging enough to call dishonourable, unprincipled, &0., &c., then I beg to assure them that I have done each and all of these things, and were the same circumstances to occur again, both my partner and myself would take again the same measures step by step that in this matter we have already taken;

1 repeat, that if after the issue of an arrangement made by S. Nos worthy on the part of Messrs. Rhodes, and carried out in the absence of my partner and myself, Messrs. Rhodes had considered themselves aggrieved, and had in any way enabled us to listen to them, we would not have lost a moment in giving them satisfaction had we thought it due. Had we received any-recognisable request, and refused to listen to or entertain it, we might then have deserved some portion of Mr. Rhodes' abuse, but when a sudden communication reached us, couched in tyrannical, low, and vulgar language to which no gentleman or educated man could have committed himself, we at once stood .upon the arrangement originally made by his overseer, until some aptjlogy • had been offered us for such an insult. Throughout we have only erred in one instance, viz., in not at once understanding that Messrs. Rhodes, Nos worthy and Co. were the lamentably uneducated and uncultivated individuals we found them. In short, we ought at once to have seen what many men have since remarked to me, that from the quadruped with a ringed snout, harmony will be looked for in vain. If Mr. Rhodes imagines that the influence that his wealth alone commands, or any quantity of untruth that it can purchase, is to crush men who have refused to submit to his gross insulting ignorance, I distinctly assure him that 1 am not the man who will be crushed by either. Mr. Rhodes has only lately recovered from a well-deserved knock-down for verbal personal insult; he never more richly deserved whipping in his life than for his conduct towards us in the matter lam now discussing; and though I have ho wish to touch him with the extreme end of a pair of tongs, let him learn from the experiences with which he is meeting, that rich as he is, men will not submit to his overweening coarseness. Certainly, if on hearing from a subordinate circumstances affecting a neighbour, instantly, without giving that neighbour an iota of credit, grossly to insult and accuse him, be gentlemanly.and desirable, then Mr. Rhodes is both desirable and a gentleman. If to assure certain stockowners in this province subscribing to an aclvei tisement (requiring general signature to prevent reflections upon others), that other names, ours among the number, should be attached, and then in the face of sucli important assurance to publish it all over the province without such assurance being fulfilled,—if this be honorable and upright, then Mr. Rhodes has acted in a most honourable and upright manner. And if to attack men's private characters in the public prints by accusations and imputations blackened by the the colour of their own minds,—if to do this be reputable, then have Messrs. Rhodes, Nosworthy and Co. won for themselves a noble reputation. I am, sir, yours, &c., LAWRENCE KENNAWAY. , P.S. As the existence of this correspondence is likely to be contemporary with that of Mr. Rhodes', allow me to suggest as it is in no way connected with ear-nmrking, that in future his effusions be alluded to as "Rhodes, Nosworthy, and Co.'s Monthly Review," and mine, as I shall generally reply the next or following morning, as the "Morning Advertiser." You will oblige me by appending the following letter referring to a portion of the above,: " Christchurch, May 17, 1861. " Messrs. and Delamain,—. " Dear Sirs, —In reference to the advertisement offering a reward for the detection of party or parties suspected of unfair dealing with the sheep in the neighbourhood of the Mackenzie country, I can state, 1 hope to your satisfaction, that the name of Hall and Stericker was appended thereto without the slightest reference to your firm, but with a view of putting an end to such practices, if they existed, as we had been led to think they had as regarded others in that part of the country. . " In such a serious matter I expected the sign ng of so important a paper would have been a genera one throughout that district, and not to av laid on a few. As far as we are concerned, Man only say that wc have never individually. 3396