FAIR PLAY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2334, 29 October 1908, Page 7

FAIR PLAY.

[To the Editor.] v Sir,—Have we, in truth, so degenerated that even the true meanings of terms have been mutilated ■ that it i-s" so would appear from the letter of your correspondent of this morning ,who uses the “nom-de-plume”- of “Fair Play” under ian effusion that reeks with abuse and is devoid of any semblance of the spirit of fair play, a spirit which Britons boast of as being inculcated into them from their birth, and as being by right their heritage. It is indeed a black fair play which casts insults on a whole community, heedless of its facts, heedless and caring not that it attacks the good with the bad, classing all in its sweeping condemnation. Why does not “Fair Play” attack solicitors, because some of the jin embers have shown themselves unlit for that profession; clergymen, because some have been unfrocked? Go wliefo you will, sir, you find a “black sheep” in all sections, and yet “Fair Play” is one of those pessiuu ists who, perhaps from personal spite against one only of “the trade,” has the manliness (save the mark) to disparage the whole of that branch for the fault of one. “Fair Play” states no-license advocates boldly challenged their opponents to come into the open and state their case fairly. and no doubt others, well remember when a gentleman, at his own expense and initiative, addressed a meeting in tlio theatre, showing tlio degrading influence of no-license,, and how did the no-license element present receive him? With fair play? No, sir, but by raising >a pandemonium which prevented him from continuing his address with the comfort that fair play (the true form) would have accorded him. “The Trade” .ask ■ for no inidgnation meetings to be held,--they know, and their supporters know, the inconsistency and weakness of their opponents, some of whom are dictated by personal spite, some by the use they may make of “no-li-censo” as a political lever, this latter a rotten reed to lean, upon, as has been proved before. This black “Fair Play” decries a donation be-

ing given to a certain institution, to be added to if continuance carried, , classing it as bribery. It is a well known fact that many, on being approached for a subscription to some deserving object, give a certain amount, pleading slackness of trade as a reason for the smallness of the sum, and stating they will give more if trade improves; this explanation is deemed a perfectly legitimate one, yet, when one of “the trade” shows Ins sympathy with a movement by giving his donation, stating at the same time he cannot afford more at the present juncture, “Fair Play” belittles his well meant addition, “if continuance bo carried.” There is in our midst a gentleman who considers himself aggrieved because Government is exacting its right to take over his property at the expiration of his tease, (a portion only of his estate), a right he must have been cognisant of when he purchased the # goodwill; how much more so must ; be the hotel-keeper, knowing that not a portion of his property, but the whole of it,-may be taken from hif, and he..himself ruined, by the caprice, of such as “Fair Play”? This black “Fair Play” states the liquor trade has resorted to slander and misrepresentation and yet what is his letter but a tissue of such, and based on what? On the evidence of faddists, of those who do not know, and who, if they did, would conceal, if possible, the blighting effects of nolicense, both morally and materially, who deem drink the oause of all evil and yet adopt and mother “no-li-cense,” which is but an illegitimate child of “prohibition”, and which its mother will not recognise. Sir, I pride myself on being a Briton, with n Britan’s love of fair play, but to rice black foul play masquerading as -/air piay must serve me as an excuse for trespassing at such length on your valuable space.—l am, etc. D. J. BARRY. Gisborne, Oct. 27.