ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 864, 22 January 1879, Page 2

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE EVENING MAIL. Sik, —You seem to infer from the absence of the Wood machine from competition to-day that the agents were afraid to enter one of the above machines. Such is not the case. We think we were not used fairly last year at the competition held on the 28th February in awarding first prize to a machine which failed to doits allotted work—three acres—breaking down twice, and being 501b. heavier draught than the Wood, which completed its work —three acres—in two hours and twenty-five minutes without a single mishap. Now, I want to ask you, Sir, if it is fair to award to any machine—no matter how good a machine —a first prize when it fails to do its alloted work—or, in other words, breaks down in the race. Well, the trial was so unfair last year that we then and there announced that, so long as the present system (judging by ballot) was persisted in by the N.O.A. ana P. Association, just so long we should decline to compete. —Yours, etc. W T OOD, SHAND, A2JD Co., Per C. E. Blake. [Our correspondent is in error in concluding that we inferred the agents for the Wood machine were afraid to compete. We merely said that, by not entering their machine for the trial, they were liable to create such an impression.— Ed. E. M.]