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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume I, Issue 1, 4 July 1861, Page 3

To the Editor of the Hawke's Uai / Times.

S' 1 '*" - 1 beg you will ullow me a few lines iu your “Open Column," to answer a portion ot a letter which appeared in the H. B. Herald, ot the 16th, nit., and signed “Givis/ 5 His Jirst, second, and third paragraphs I shall not trouble to notice, nor yet anv other portion ot his letter with the exception of the fourth paragraph (the others have been sufficiently answered by “ Milos," in the Herald of the 23rd ult.), in which ho says—“ Now, whilst weighing (his tact, it occurred to me that something far more—may 1 crave leave to call it—inglorious had happened here during the late war, without any public investigation or enquiry. That a superior Hritish force—a greatly superior force of trained warriors—had not merely failed to follow up, but had ruthlessly fled before a mere handful of barbarians ; had not, as i>yng and his squadron did, failed to pursue, lest by so doing they might endanger the Province they were directed to protect—but had shewn their inglorious backs to the enemy, and when ordered to attack' —lake notice of this “ an empty pah, had been terror-stricken and quailed at the first discharge of the Maori pieces ; nay more, that in this panic and dismay they had abandoned, the soldiers their arms, and the officer his sword —(non bene rdicta formula) —in eager haste to facilitate their dastardly escape/’ Sir, such a lying and unfounded letter has seldom appeared in any New Zealand journal. "Whore did “ Givis’’ derive his information ? Not from the Taranaki jwpers, 1 suspect. Perhaps he has got a. special correspondent in Taranaki. “ Givis” seems to be a very intelligent and shrewd sort of a person, and he must surely have sense enoueh to know that the appearance of such letters creates a feeling of dislike between the troops and civilians. “ Givis” surely must be hard up for something to write about when he takes it into his head to write such a slanderous and unfounded effusion. There is only one more thing which 1 wish to say about “ Givis, and that is, that when he, or any other writer, wishes to complain of the conduct of the military, they will complain to the proper parties, and to always bear in mind that obedience, is the soldier's first duty, and that when a soldier is ordered to either advance or retreat, he is either obliged to obey or bear the consequences of disobedience. I am, Sir, Yours truly, Yeiutas. Napier, July 3, 1861.