THE SOCIETY OF ARTS MEETING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9131, 13 August 1888, Page 3

THE SOCIETY OF ARTS MEETING.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —I am unable to discover any remark* or any allusion in my letter in complaint of which Mr. S. Stuart writes in your Friday's issue, which even the most strained construction can convert, into an expression of unfriendliness to that gentleman. There ia nothing in it that I can recall, nothing I could have wished to have left unsaid.

Mr. Stuart thinks there is something that badly requires clearing up ; to me all is quite clear already. As to Mr. Stuart's statement, " Most of the written votes which were sent (at all events, those of which I am personally cognizant), were not proxies at all, but letters addressed to the secretary by members who wished to record their votes on my behalf." This is the merest and most puerile quibble. In whatever form, these papers were to all intents and purposes proxies, and nothing else. So far as I remember, they {for 1 think they were all on one model) ran thus : ''Sir, —As I shall be unable to attend the annual meeting of the Society of Arts, on Wednesday, the Ist August, I wish to record my vote in favour of Mr. Stuart." [Here follows signature, and in one corner of the letter] " To the Secretary Society of Arts." The statement that the letter of " One who was mere" had no reference to the annual report,—this is another quibble. The remarks of the president, which, it is said, have given rise to all the correspondence, were nothing more than an extract from the report which had been read, and which the president repeated in moving its adoption. Mr. MoKechnie's own remarks re library, etc., were not referred to by " One who was there."—l am, &c, C. D. Whitcombe. Auckland, 11th August, 1888.