The Defence of the Member for Roslyn.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5094, 30 August 1884, Page 3

The Defence of the Member for Roslyn.

+ [Special to the "Stab."] DUNEDIN, August 30. Mr Boss, the member for Roslyn, sends this letter to the Press : — " I see by the papers that it is intended to burn in effigy those Otago members who voted against the Stout-cum- Vogel Government. Well, this may have terrors for some people, but not for your humble servant. I did not give the vote I did without anxious and . careful consideration ; and the long and continuous friendship which has existed between Mr Stout and myself rendered my position a somewhat disagreeable one. But having, as I said, made up my mind that the course chalked out for myself was the correct one, I gave my vote, as I would have given it even if doing so had involved the burning of the original instead of the effigy. I am not afraid but that I shall be able to justify my vote to my constituents, and will certainly not try to conciliate the tagrag and bobtail whose intelligence does not rise above burning in effigy those who may differ from them in opinion or action. I cannot in this letter explain in detail the reasons (and they were many) which prompted my action, but this much I will say : that I looked upon the Ministry as I would look upon a blotched piece of Mosaic work, the combination of whose colours had been made so inharinoniously and whose component parts had been arranged so inartistically, that in its whole it presented not one lineament of ' a thing of beauty/ and from the imperfect workmanship in its construction showed no evidence whatever . of permanent durability."