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Timaru Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 1770, 3 June 1895, Page 2

Another instalment of the FishSeddon, or Seddon-Fish, telegraphic correspondence is published in our news columns this morning. Let us hope that it is the final instalment, for, in regard to its main features, there has already been too much of it. Having made that admission, we may be asked why we published it at all. Simply because it occurred to us that it might be a useful object lesson for budding politicians and citizens who hope some day or other to be Premiers or Mayors. They can read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest all that Fish said to Seddon and Seddon said to Fish, and then perhaps they will understand that it is improper for two prominent public men— the ' Premier on the one hand and the Mayor of Dunedin, on the other — j to engage in such a miserable wordy warfare as that correspondence constitutes. We have no doubt that both those gentlemen are anxious to see the last of the unemployed difficulty, and to do something meanwhile to lessen the evil. It strikes us forcibly that the telegraphic correspondence has not helped the unemployed a little bit, but has stirred up some ill-feeling between the Government and the municipal authorities of Dunedin. Mr Fish, as His Worship the Mayor, wanted the Government to do something for the large number of men who at the present moment are unfortunately walking the streets of Dunedin without knowing where an hour's work can be obtained. That being the situation, why did not Mr Fish approach the Premier with the courtesy and respect due to the latter's office ? The correspondence commenced inj udiciously , and went from bad to worse as it developed. The Mayor was the aggressor in the strife," but the Premier ought not to have accepted the challenge, but should have confined himself to a brief and courteous reply. He, however, appears to have jumped at such a splendid chance of engaging in what our readers will perhaps pardon us for calling "a slanging match." Both combatants enjoy that sort of thing immensely. We know them of old, and therefore venture to think ourselves qualified to give an opinion on the point. At least nine-tenths of what the telegraphic correspondence contained had better have been omitted. All the insinuations, all the sarcasm, all the back-handed compliments, all the abuse (for some of the language partook of that character) were entirely out of place. The bare question was the finding of work for the unemployed, and, that was left in precisely the same position as when the combatants commenced operations. It seems that Mr Fish paid for his telegrams out of his own pocket, but that the Premier's were charged to the country. It was a waste of the tax-pay-ers' money. At ordinary rates the correspondence would have cost many pounds, and we fail to see that a Minister is justified in sending free along the wires columns of rubbish for the sole purpose of stirring up strife and making an I adversary mad.