MR. FOX AND THE WANGANUI HERALD.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XX, Issue 2046, 16 November 1872, Page 3

MR. FOX AND THE WANGANUI HERALD.

Mb. Fox has written the following letter to the Wanganui Herald : — Sir, — In your paper of the 30th October, there is an article relating to myself affecting to be an apology for remarks made by you on a previous occasion. It is more offensive than that for which it professes to apologise. The following are some of the observations by which you endeavour to justify your previous personalities : — M Mr. Fox has got a bad name for writing very offensive articles (to use a mild term) in the Independent, as well as the Nelson Colonist. We suppose it is another application of ' Give a dog a bad name,' Ac. The popular belief that the ex-Premier did write all the i most bitter and personal things in certain papers detracted greatly from his, political reputation," Ac. On this you base your excuse for having supposed that I wrote a certain article in the Independent, and for having abused me for doing so. It is no business of yours, or of env other person, to know whether I aui in the habit of coutributiu^ lv the public press or not. Though I have never been professionally connected with the press, I have quite as much right to publish my ideas and to preserve my incognito, as you or any other professional writer who lives by his pen j and I am not in the habit of allowing myself to be questioned on the subject. On this occasion, however, I will so far depart from my usual practice as to tell you one or two facts which h ill shew how very reckless and unfounded are your statements above quoted, and how unjust it is (if it be so) that my " political reputation should have been greatly damaged" by the circulation of such rumours as you refer to. First, as regards the Colonist. On a recent previous occasion you made the same statement of my connection with that journal, adding that I had written in it "particularly during the ©lections." Now, the fact is this. I never but once in my life (as far as I can recollect) wrote an article in the Nelson Colonist. The only article I ever wrote in it attacked no political opponent, and was not written during the period of any election, or near such period. -Secondly, as regards the Independent. ' I do not think that during the last dozen years I have written a dozen articles in that paper. I may have contributed the same number of letters to ita oo- ' lumns. Nearly the whole of both of these have been on subjects quite independent of party poli tics, such as Land Transfer, the Constitution of Courts of Appeal, Relations with America, Reviews of books, the Permissive Bill, and other questions of social reform. Such has been my sole connection with the New Zealand newspaper press for ten or a dozen years at least 5 and yet, nccording to you "it is popularly believed that I have habitually written all the most bitter and personal things" in the two journals named. The custom of two or three of the inferior journals of this Colony imputing to political opponents the authorship of particular articles in rival papers, is one entirely contrary to the morals and etiquette of the press whereon journalistic decencies are enforced. In my case you justify your infringement of this rule, so well known among gentlemen, by coarsely quoting the adage of " Give a dog a bad name, &c." But who is it gives the bad name ? It is you, and other journalists of your sort; and this is how you do it. j First, one of you invents a calumny, or you pick one up in the street, ready-made. Then the rest of yon circulate it till 3 our readers believe it. Then you repeat it till you come to believe it yourselves Then you declare that what everybody believes must be true 5 and so it attains to the dignity of a " popular belief," and you wash your hands of all responsibility for its propagation. When your calumnies are exposed I wonder how yon feel ? Do you feel like an honest man ? Do you feel like a respectable journalist ? or do yon feel like a thief detected in the act of filching a man's good name which, Shakspeare tells us, is baser than taking his purse ? You are pleased to say that you " implicity accept Mr. Fox's denial of the authorship of the article" you had imputed to me. Ton cannot accept what I never offered. I never authorised anyone to communicate with, or to offer any explanation to you, on the enbject. On the contrary you are at perfect liberty to believe that I wrote the article— you are at perfect liberty to believe that I did not. Tour belief is a matter of entire indifference to me. When on a late occasion you reprinted in your journal that "disgraceful and disgusting" article in whioh the Evening Post assailed the ladios of a minister's family, and justified the action of the Post, you took your place among the Pariahs of the Press, and the last thing I would think of doing would be to offer to such a person any explanation as to the authorship of any article he might impote to me. As to the article itself which you did so impute to me, my opinion is that you had no reason to complain of it. I do not understand that you can deny a single fact alleged in it. The castigation bestowod upon you seems to have been richly merited by your conduct in regard to the Post's arcicle, and the generally scurrilous attacks on other people in which you habitually indulge. When, in addition, you came forward as a candidate for a soat in the Assembly it was quite justifiable to canvass your fitness and your antecedents. It is amnßing to hear you complain of the same kind of treatment as you habitually bestow on others. You publish every week from six to a dozen anonymous articles, in the greater number of which you attack some political opponent in a personal, scurrilous, and vindictive manner. When your own turn comes, you cry like a whipped schoolboy. I do not believe that yon have the sympathy of a single respectable person in the district where your cry is heard I think the people of Wanganui are getting tired of the personalities and scurrilities- to whioh you appear to consider it necessary to resort in the conduct of your paper. It is true that sort of writing has a tendency to create an appetite which grows with what it feeds on, and there are tastes which require very high seasoning. But the colonists of this district have most of them (to use a phrase of Livingstone's) been inoculated with common sense ; autl they ninst feel that the continual senrrilous depreciation of their representative men, whether politicians, ministers of religion, or social reformers of any other class, the heaping of ridicule npon them, and pursuing them even into private life, doe 3 not add to the reputation of the community, nor make it more respectable in the eyes of those at a distance. Th<j pernsal of a few numbers of the Evening Herald would do more to deter many from settling in the district where it finds readers, than the suspicion of ague or yellow fever. It ia possible that now I hare retired from offioial life, you may cease to make me the constant subject of your scurrilous pen. I care very little whether you do or not. My reputation has beeu for thirty years before the Colony in the full light of day, and" I am not afraid that anything you oau say or write will injure it. At the same time, should you continue the practioe, I shall know how to defend myself, should I think your attacks worth my notice. I should not have done so on this occasion, but that you afforded me an opportuuity of refuting a calumny whieii hasbeen often circulated ; and because from the manner in which the authorship of the article alluded to had been mentioned, there was an opening for yonr possibly impugning the veracity of a statement whioh I never authorised to be made to you, and ; which you will consider, as far aB I am oonoerned, as never made. — I am, &0., William Fox.

The Hawk v. tue Pheasant.— lt may be interesting to know that in the enconnters (not nnfreqaent) which take place between the New Zealand hawk and cook pheasant, the latter proves the victor. A Boston clergyman lately spoke of seeing a lady " with the pearl drops of affection hanging and gliteting on her cheek." He meant that she was crying. * Backgammon. — A lady's pnnnier.