The Taranaki Herald. PUBLISHED ON WEDNESDAYS AND SATURDAYS. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1869.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XVII, Issue 918, 25 September 1869, Page 2

The Taranaki Herald. PUBLISHED ON WEDNESDAYS AND SATURDAYS. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1869.

We have no doubt that most of our readers have in the course of their lives been astonished at seeing youths who, when under the parental control, have shown docile and amiable characteristics, and, if not possessed of great strength of character, have merited, by their general good conduct, the approval of their elders, and acquired the reputation of being wise young men ; but the moment that they have escaped the guiding hand that restrained the worst features of their characters, the pent up feelings of years have burst out and carried their victims along a course of vice and degradation — the very antipodes of their previous career. A similar astonishment must have seized the mind of the public with regard to the strange action of the Superintendent, at the close of his tenure of office. Whilst under the close guardianship of the Council, he succeeded in passing through his Superintendency in a respectable, though not in a brilliant manner. His want of decision, and that vacillation of character which he possesses, was not | allowed to develop itself to the injury of the public. But now that his political crutches have been removed, and he has to walk alone without his accustomed support, the natural bent of his mind is allowed full expression — and we see the result. This gentleman, however, on entering the arena of a political contest, will be satisfied with nothing less than a fight with us and his rival candidates. To prepare himself for the great struggle, he has procured a "Rosinante," and is now armed cap-cu-pie in pasteboard ; and like the renowned Don Quixote, has sallied forth in search of adventures. He shambles along on his lean charger full tilt at us; because, forsooth, " a garbled report of his own speech, written by himself, was declined, and a report furnished by our own reporter used instead. He felt he had failed so miserably in his speech at the meeting, that it was necessary to his reputation that he should appear in the public prints, not as he was, but as he wished to be. In the interest - of the public, we considered it our duty to report the- proceedings as they actually occurred, and we challenge anyone to impugn the accuracy of our report. What course the Provincial Secretary may think proper to pursue, we do not know, but we should advise him to treat the personal attack made on him by his colleague with the contempt which it deserves ; as the style of language used, and the imputations made, are more calculated to injure the traducer than the traduced. Having exhausted his ample vocabulary of offensive and insulting terms, in speaking and writing of one rival, he then turns on Mr. Carrington, who has not in any way referred to him or his, and whose genial good nature even a political contest cannot disarrange. It might have been supposed that a gentleman who has conducted his electioneering campaign in such a pleasant manner would have disarmed attack ; but no — our modern Quixote, rushes up with his antiquated blunderbuss charged to the muzzle with political spleen ; but the | weapon hangs fire, and only affords amuse* ment to the lookers on. Seeing that his political career was drawing to a close, we had determined not to hurry the arrival of that period, but the uncalled for and unprovoked attack on ourselves, and the bitter personality in his remarks on his opponents, compels us to take some notice of his actions which, otherwise, we should have passed over in silence, vj' j