THE “TIMARU HERALD” AND THE MEMBER FOR GLADSTONE.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2874, 10 June 1882, Page 3

THE “ TIMARU HERALD” AND THE MEMBER FOR GLADSTONE.

[To the Editor.] Sib,— The “ Herald ” o£ yesterday lias a sub-leader (alluded to by you in your issue of this evening) attacking the Member for Gladstone, and attempting to throw ridicule on that gentleman’s Bill for the amendment of the constitution of the Timam High School Board of Governors. The “ Herald ” or any other newspaper has a perfect right to criticise the provisions of any Bill laid before Parliament/but I cannot allow the imputation by the writer in the “ Herald,” of personal motives to the Member for Gladstone, to pass unchal- ' lenged. The “ Herald ” says :—“ He wants to drive certain persona whom be does not happen to like out of the Board, and to get in certain others whom he does like, or at all events whom it would suit him to have in.” Many of your readers, I am quite sure would like to know on what grounds the writer in the “Herald” bases such an impudent charge as this. It would also he interestingsto a good many to hear how the “ Herald ” imagines the Member for Gladstone could gain his purpose, should the Bill become law. The Bill proposes that the members of the Board shall in future bo elected by the burgesses of Timaru and the members of the Geraldine and Waimate County Councils. How, if the Member for Gladstone represented in his own person the 1200 and odd franchised burgesses of Timaru and the two County Councils named, one could understand how he could “ drive •out those persons he did not like, and jput in those tfhom he did,” But being only a unit among so many hundreds, I •confess lam at a loss to see how he •could possibly hope to carry out bis selfish views. The fact is, the passage I have quoted from the “ Herald ” is Jboth impudent and groundless, and shews an amount of spite which is perfectly disgraceful in a paper with any pretensions to respectability. Mr Sutter has-at various times during his public career in Timaru, hit the “ Herald ” and and its staff of incapable* rather hard, and that highly respected organ not finding itself a match for him in fair fight, is now descending to the meanness of attributing bad motives to a perfectly honorable gentleman, who is simply •doing what he considers his duty as a member of the House of Representatives. Mr Sutter is too well known, and too highly respected in Timaru, to suffer much from the spiteful attacks of a paper of the “ Timaru Herald” class, and I for one, have no doubt, but that at the epd of the session, ho will be able to give a, satisfactory account of bis stewardship to his constituents. I would say •* Look on the statements of the “ Herald” with suspicion, as the emanations of spite and malice, and judge the Member for Gladstone by his acts.” lam yours &c., A Gladstone Elector. . Timaru, June 9,1882.