ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1284, 19 May 1880, Page 2

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

ELECTION MATTERS. TO THE EDITOR OF THE 0 AMARU MAIL. Sir, — A person siguing himself "Liberal," writing in your contemporary's columns this morning, says that I am trying to force Mr. Roberts to retire from the coming contest. I assume, sir, that any efforts of mine to induce that gentleman to retire, in the sense meant by' " Liberal," would be utterly futile. So far as I and some hundreds of my fellow electors are concerned, Mr. Roberts has already retired. He is no longer the nominee of the Liberal party of Waitaki. . Having abjured Liberal principles, he now comes forward as nominee of a hole-and-corner concern of pseudo-Liberal politicians, who sail under a neutral flag. I am aware that many persons, like your contemporary's correspondent, do not understand the necessity for an unyielding adherence to any principle, be it political or otherwise, hence I am not surprised that he cannot understand why I have changed my opinion of Mr. Roberts as a candidate. I am, &c., W. F. Kjnneak. May 18, 1880.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE OAMARU MAID. I "Under which king, baseßezonian, speak or die." • —Shakespeare. Sir, —This was the line which memory promptly supplied when I read of the retirement of Mr. Sutherland in favor of Mr. Reid. Liberal electors which of your two candidates shall retire from the contest ? Decide, or be defeated. I say this in the hope that true friends of the cause should use their influence in inducing one of our champions to retire. It will be painful if personal ambition should be stronger than patriotism—two strings to our bow will be a terrible mistake. It will make defeat certain.

If one retires and generously throws himself and his influence into the scale of the remanent, candidate of the party, victory is possible, and I say this eveft

after haying read that Mr. N. Fleming and Mr. T. H. Brown have announced their support of Mr. Reid.—Yours, etc., Ancient Pistol. ■ _♦ TO THE EDITOR OF THE OAMARU MAIL. Sir, —In your Monday's issue I see a letter from " A Subscriber,". who, from a vain effort to grapple with two or three quotations, has evidently developed a surly temper. We have no doubt Keats and Browning are rubbish to him. Mnemosyne sees, however, that towards the end of his epistle " A Subscriber" has a dim sense of, his own ignorance, and that inability steals over him. He feels that he has been making bold assertions in perfect ignorance of facts. For instance, he says "' Mnemosyne' waxes wroth because he cannot have the same privilege without paying, &c." " Mnemosyne" begs to state that she pays more than LI per year, and that possibly in the late bazaar her efforts increased the funds of the Committee far more than " A Subscriber's" eight years' subscriptions. Did no thought like the following ever enter " A Subscriber's" dull brain— That if a private room was necessary for his comfort, how much more was it needful for the comfoi#of ladies. I would like to ask " A Subscriber"- a few questions and the first is—" What is the difference between a boarder who wished to get the periodicals for nothing and a subscriber who wishes to get public subscriptions on the same terms ; and, secondly, is not the accommodation and the library answerable for the short number of subscribers rather than the general morality of the town ; and, lastly, while thanking " Subscriber" for the one small item of information he has afforded us, we would like to. ask the Committee if it is for the benefit of some architect that they are keeping the money, or do they think the owner of the lower section or the bank need sustaining ?"—I am, &c., Mnemosyne. TO THE EDITOR OP THE OAMART7 MAII. Sir, —I regret to see our correspondent's departure from that intellectual style which has hitherto characterised his efforts, and that he has relegated to himself the office of recorder of mean and trivial cases of petty theft (vide his letter of the sth inst.), in the last mentioned of which if the tongue of rumor be correct, the cap has been made to fit the wrong person. —I am, &c., Try Again. Livingstone, 2lst May, 1880.