CORRESPONDENCE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LIII, Issue 124, 27 May 1919, Page 6

CORRESPONDENCE

(Tj the Editor.)

Sir, —Some people can appear to be very dense when it suits them, and if it not an insult to the nationality 1 would say F. G. Gibbs was Scotch, when in Ms educated innooence he asks me tc teli him the name of the witness whom he terms the real offender.' But he forgets, as he has done a lot of tilings, that 1m boasted of his -riches and extravagant gonexOsity in that he would willingly pay half-a-dozen inquiries or test cases if I proved my case. His offer 3 accepted*, ptejovided I lhadi tfcratyhing more than his mere woxd, viz., an agreement signed by fflto and declared before a J.P. and two reliable witnesses, and notwithstanding his agreeing to pay all expenses six times over, he now wants me to prove my case on the cheap by using your correspondence columns instead of the Magistrate’s judgment. No thank®j I like to do things in proper form. But let us look at his alleged -facts. First he says in his letter of the 21st; It is an amusing fact that no one directly after me, and yet both pre*» reports distinctly contradict 'this F. G. Gibbs,' and report three witnesses alter he had given his valuable information on behalf of that august body, the Chamber of Commerce, as reSirted in a six-line paragraph. Second: e said he was the last witness to give evidence before the adjournment lor luncheon; and yet he now admit® that other ' three witnesses gave evidence ; and as there was no adjournment for luncheon, that makes another mistake. Three'; Now he says there wag a break in the proceedings (in his imagination he means) that might ®afely be termed No. 4, for there wae not many seconds between F. G. Gibbs’s evidence

and that of the next witness; in this the,, press reporters will bear me out. What* reliance can be placed, on any one*ffiat makes such dogmatic assertions that are shown to be absolutely untrue, and is 6 o bound up in his own- infallible import tance that he will not even admit that he has blundered. But he has broken out in a new place, and seem® now to think that an expression of regret on my part for the mistaken identity error is not near adequate compensation for fcUch an offence against such an influenthl and 1 important person as F. 0. Qibbs. Ho says he has yet to learn. 1* know he has a dot to learn. With his bombastic correspondence he has almost managed to ignore point at issue. One of his motives was jealousy. I Knve no doubt it was very galing to hear the eomplune|ntary congratulations of [the Chairman of f the Industries Committee bestowed on an unknown (here) outsider like me, and then read the glowing reports in the preafe with its half-column notice . When such an important per nonage as F. 0. Gibbs, sole represents- , tive of. that august body, the Nelson Chamber of Commerce, did not receive the slightest commendation, and his valuable suggestions only noticed in ■ the press by a six-line paragraph, to n high-strung, sensitive nature like F. G. Gibbs’s it must have felt brutal. That is the advantage of having refined feelings; but, thank goodness, we have not all got them. I will not encroach on your valuable space further, I leave my friends, the public, to form their own conclusions whose word it is best to trust. Thanking you for your space and patience in the correspondence, and ; trusting F. G. Gibbs will be gentleman enough to express hi® regret for hie audacity in questioning the correctness of your repqrte and the word of your reporter. Again thinking you for your .•onsideration, X am, etc., . . J. WATT.