THOMAS McGLOIN—HIS LITERARY ABILITY, HIS INCONSISTENCY, AND HIS FUTURE.

Opunake Times, Volume III, Issue 105, 5 July 1895, Page 3

THOMAS McGLOIN—HIS LITERARY ABILITY, HIS INCONSISTENCY, AND HIS FUTURE.

(to the editor.) Sir, —In your issue of the 21st June T..McGloin complains you attack him unfairly. Let me recall to his memory an action of his, not long ago, when he, through the medium of the public press, worried the previous foreman, who by virtue of his appointment and subervient position could not reply. Worry, like chickens, invariably comes home to roost, and we have now the spectacle of witnessing T. McGloin whining and wincing under the unmerciful lashes of the editorial pen. All cowards do the same, and well they might; for is not the pen mightier than the sword ? The personalities he indulges in 1 will pass over, for you show by the manner you handle this personnel grata, T. McGloin, that you are quite capable of taking care of yourself, and I fancy Mr O'Brien can do the same. But to our muttons ; if Mr O’Brien is the incapable man T. McGloin now endeavors to make out, why did he work heaven and earth to get him the appointment, and why did he nominate him as the fit and proper person to value the previous foreman’s work, prior to his (the foreman’s) discharge ? Where is the consistency ? I happen to be in the know', and can inform your readers the trouble has'' been caused, not by Mr O’Brien’s lack of knowledge on road work generally, but is attributable to that gentleman’s favorable report on the previous foreman’s work. T. McGloin next proclaims to the world that he has had to alter the engineer’s specifications on more than one occasion to make them workable. Now this is a most important and serious admission. Important to the ratepayers, who may well ask : What is the use of going to the expense of drawing up elaborate specifications, calling for tenders, and paying an engineer, when an officious and non-practical councillor can waive the whole thing and carry out his own sweet will? Serious, because if the engineer is ignored, there is nothing to prevent any councillor from saying to a pet contractor, “If you can’t do it at the figure I will get it altered.” The waiving of condition in one of the Eltham Road contracts is sufficiently near to this ai’gument, so as to render it uncommonly suspicions. T. McGloin’s action towards the engineer ■has proved the last proverbial straw, and public opinion is reefing the sails of his public life quicker than his stoutest opponents ever expected, and he will very soon find himself relegated to that oblivion from whence, to pose as a public man, he should never have emerged.—l am, &c., Omega. Eahotu, June 28, 1895.