COUNTER CRITICISM.

Westport Times, Volume II, Issue 204, 26 March 1868, Page 3

COUNTER CRITICISM.

' (To the Editor of the Westport Times ■ and Charleston Argus?) g r]R) —i an not a regular reader of your columns, neither of your contemporary the 'Star bufrl have often been struck by the general animus displayed by that paper towards The Westpobt Times. On taking up a copy of the Star this morning I see one article extracted from a Charleston paper contaiuing no little amount of abuse, because of some alleged strictures on Mr Donne, M.P.C. No doubt your numerous readers duly appreciate the sensational labours of Mr Donne, at any rate T do ; it does not need any great amount'of intelligence to comprehend why the article is inserted, which is no doubt from the pen of the gentleman himself—seeing that Mr Donne's election address occupies an adjoining column, I also notice a letter signed "Juryman" criticising a leading article, which I found emanated from a gentleman formerly known _ as " Erank Ashton " and evidently writen as a vehicle for the foot note attached thereto. "Without going into the merits or demerits of the articles in your paper I think your readers will bear me out when I say that it would bo impossible to mis-represent the district more than the Star frequently does. On many occassions there have appeared articles of the most absurd, not to say mischevous nature; for instance I read a paper in another province a paragraph from the Star, to tho effect that the sea had encroached so much as to wash away the sectiont recently surveyed and sold, which would lead people at a distance to think that the town was in danger of being washed away like portions of Hokitiki. This statement has not the least foundation in fact, and is a fair sample of the manner in which their :news is manufactured. Again, the leading articles which appear in its columns occasionally, are almost invariably parodied or taken entire from other sourses. Even the leader before mo gives as original a circumstance which took place at Echuca, or somewhere in that locality, and was related in tho last number of the Australian News, only the writer in the Star has spiced it with a to suit his elegant "t.asto.

I think if the Editor of the Star were to devote a little more of his time to studying subjects for notice, and use more of his own and less of other people's ideas, he would be much better able to teach others, and set himself up for a light of the world. Tours, &c, Conscience. Westport, March 24<, 1868.