Wakefield’s Ride To Plymouth

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 187, 4 May 1940, Page 13

Wakefield’s Ride To Plymouth

Sir.—My attention has been drawn to a letter from Dr. A. J. Harrop in your issue of April 16, in which he again takes exception to my comments. This quarrel is not one of my choosing. I had previously made it clear tliat no historian is infallible, and that in consequence Dr. Harrop was fallible. To emphasize the point I mentioned several errors which Dr. Harrop has committed. Now he returns to the fray with some nonsense about the alleged gold reward paid to Albert) Hunt, and asked whether I had private information about the matter. If a little research had been performed, it would have been quite clear that" Hunt did not receive any reward for finding gold in Westland. The reward ” was paid for different reasons, which are clearly and unmistakably set out? In t2ie minutes of the Canterbury Provincial Council. These, I take it. can scarcely be classed as private, inasmuch as they were printed for public information. It will be noted that Dr. Harrop- ‘ still does not produce any information concerning the point which I challenged originally, that Is, whether or not Wakefield actually make a trip to Plymouth for the purpose of speeding the Tory on her way. I cau only assume that in this matter he has merely repeated what others have stated, and has no real evidence at all to support bis statement —exactly the same pro-’ cedure as when lie mentions in his “Romance of 'Westland” that McKay, in his trip down the West Coast in • 1860, proceeded to Jacksons Bay; that - James C. Clendon witnessed the “De--claration of Independence” of 1535. 1 am, etc., MAHUTA. ’ ‘