THE A. AND P. WINTER SHOW.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume 31, Issue 9220, 15 June 1900, Page 6

THE A. AND P. WINTER SHOW.

TO THE EDITOR. \ Sib, —The extraordinary outcome of my' last letter to your columns re the above has; been such that I have little doubt that numbers of your readers will be anxious to hear from me again. It is no small achievement having caused one Naseby Idler to labour. What.a benefactor to'the community • I would be if T could induce a few more of them to do likewise. Yes, he has actually laboured, and laboured hard too, in the production of on elaborate joke which you published in your last issne. Let me therefore give him a lit tie encouragement by acknowledging his efforts. I cannot recol-' lect a Naseby idler ever having labonred in your columns—or anywhere else for that matter —before. It is quite clear that he is in no way related to the illustrious.ldler of 150 years ago—be who commanded the respect of all independent minded workers in spite of his dirty shirts and his inordinate love of porter. ■ oni's is an idler of quite another kind, literary no doubt—the eaeoetke* scribendi phrase is a relapse iuto an old style which I recognise—but his present idling 13 a vice of comparatively recent date, no older I should say than the county system of local Government. Let us then welcome him back to his old state of activity and not expect much from him in the way of accurate observation or thought for a while yet. He began bis joke by setting up a capital " HIM," just as the superintendent of a Sunday school might do, his object being, I presume, to satisfy himself that his subsequent remarks were in harmony, and no doubt they would be harmonious to thn faithful; and although the harmony was of the cabbage splitting order, it would doubtless soothe a sa\ age or two, there was no attempt however to strike the chords which appeal to tbe reason more than to the passions. So, with your permission, Sir, I would request Idler to face the music again. ' On show night Mr Grindley insinuated that certain farmers desired to ■' put Naseby down," Mr Herd man said the majority of farmers throughout the district boycotted the show because it was held in the Borough of Naseby, also " certain farmers in Manioioto said because you can hold a show in Naseby and we can't at Kanfurly we won't support it at Naseby." You, Sir, endorsed those speakers remarks subject to a kind of 50 percent, discount, but made good the loss by the following choice little gem of your own—" An insignificant minority —"men who are not actuated by feelings of local patriotism—hope by seeing Ranfurly become the important centre of the plain, to enhance the value of their own little properties, and perhaps help to line their own trousers pockets." As one coming within the field of your general accusations, I wrote denying your soft impeachment and offering you. a common sense view of the matter. Now, ! all your wild assertions remain unsupported, and my comm-ra sense explanation remains unchallenged, eo I presume your case goes by default. And so the Naseby Show was not a failure because of the reasons you gave, and in giving those as the reasons of the failure you libelled the majority of the farmers in the district. Mr Cerdman's letter is that of an angry man. If be has anything to say in defence of his extraordinary speech on Sbow Night I am sure we would all be glad to hear it, and I promise him tbat 1 will endeavour to understand him, although I freely acknowledge that I lind it rather difficult to do so at tini'S. It is said to be a device of some lawyers when there is no case to abuse the other side, but until Mr I-lerdman adopted the plau I was undor tbe impression that no respectable man would do so. I had the honour at one lime of being Mr Herdman's guide, philosopher ami friend, and I held him in rather high esteem. Strangely enough Mr Herdman has striven in his letter to show that my judgment in these matters is not at all reliable. I still hope, however, to be approximately correct in my original pstimate of him if he will only try to live up to the dignity of his office as mayor of the important Borough of Naseby—which has been tbe backbone of the district for the last 25 years and can't be put down(see Grindley on shows, M.1.0., vol. 31, No. 9215) and if he would only ee.ise playing to the pit. Ala« ! I fear to state what I fear will be the fate of the artist who devotes his whole energy to the production of stage thunder.—l am, &c., John Law, Jun.

Ranfurly, June 11, 19'HJ. [Wo are pleased to see that the scales have fallen from our correspondent's eyes to a certain extent. He admits now that we supported the statements oL' the speakers at the show concert re the unwillingness of farmers to support the Show, &:c., with a 50 per cent discount. Further on in his letter he says we " libelled the niajority of the farmers." Our correspondent is still a little confuted in his reasoning. If he reads the leader again perhaps he will see that we supported the statement with about a 90 per cent, discount,—Ed.]