CORRESPONDENCE.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 39, 27 March 1862, Page 6 (Supplement)

CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of the Hawke's Bay Times.

Sir, —I shall feel obliged by your insertion of these few remarks (upon that paragraph quoted in your leading article of March 6th from the New Zealander ), which to my certain knowledge are correct.

I presume it refers to a flock the property of Mr. Mason. In the first place, only the greater portion of them were driven back, and when they were counted and found so many hundred short, the natives were asked where the rest were. Their answer was, “ Oh in the bush,” which meant as much as to say “ You may be thankful that you have got as many as you have.” Since this, Mr. Mason’s shepherd has, at two different times, by good luck come across a few of them, and brought them home, and there still- remains between two and three hundred short, which most probably they will never see. How this, I think, considerably alters the hue of the afore mentioned statement, and as to Mr. Ward’s visit having produced

such so called satisfactory results, he did no more than what any other person would have done placed in his position, with a proscribed line of action to guard the from going astray. Now, our friend of the New Zealander, would, in my humble opinion," have acted with much more common sense had he (instead of producing such a garbled statement for the home market) thoroughly exposed the extreme rottenness of the state of native affairs, and the likelihood of their remaining so for some length of time, if not for years. He then w'ould have merited the approbation of the colonists in general, and it would have been a greater credit to himself. Trusting we may never see another of these obnoxious fabrications, with which we have been surfeited of late, I remain, Sir, Yours, &c., A.B. [To publish an ex parte statement in a monthly summary for England at a time when the departure of the mail prevents a refutation or explanation of (inis)statemcnts by cotemporary journals, may suit the purpose of the New Zealander, but such unworthy artifices are certain sooner or later to be rewarded with their deserts. The New Zealander will, perhaps, ultimately find present gain from such a course, quite an insufficient equivalent for the loss of respect and confidence in the colony. We cannot forbear to express our thanks to our correspondent for his communication, as, beyond the precincts of the province, where the circumstances of the several cases occurring here are less known, it will not fail to have its weight in corroboration of our views.— Ed. H.B 2'.]