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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 53, 3 July 1862, Page 3

To the Editor of Vie Ua wire's Bag Times. Sic, —There has been some controversy lately about the authorship of a pamphlet entitled The Six Colonies of New Zealand , several writers in the Colonial press maintaining- that the Mr. William Fox who admitted the authorship of that work cannot be the same Mr. William Fox who is now Premier of New Zealand ; they have further attempt etl to prove it to be a case of mistaken identity, supporting their argument by quotations from the work in question, and contrasting the opinions there expressed with the conduct of the Premier of our day. Having never been enlightened by a perusal of the Six Colonies , I offer no opinion as to its authorship, but submit that the supporters of the 1£ mistaken identity” view have failed to make out a clear case; that, as they say North of the Tweed, it is Not Proven. It is still quite possible that the author of the S.’.v Colonies is now the Premier of the Colony. It the '■ Author’’ of the pamphlet sought to immortalise his name by drawing upon his imagination for facts, there is something like consistency in the “ Politician' 1 following a similar course, and Premier Fox has proved himself somewhat of an adept in that line. A Mr. Fox, a Northumbrian lawyer, was said to be the Author in question : a Mr. Fox, also said to bo a lawyer from the Northern state ot the Heptarchy, is the chief of the “ peace at any price” ministry. If Fox the Author ridiculed the policy of Sir George Grey many years ago, when flour and sugar were the chief agents used in governing (or nu-re properly, managing , for the natives have never been governed by us), the natives, iox the politician lias has also ridiculed such weakness as the idea of ruling them by moral persuasion, and that not only a dozen years ago, hut also within a shorter term, not three gears past. Were the case to depend altogether on difference in views, opinion, and conduct, it would not be necessary to reler hack ten or fifteen years, to prove that the author and the politician must he two separate individuals, for the history of the Colony during the last six years would furnish quite enough evidence of that; but it is necessary to remember that politicians seeking office are often very different men from politicians who have attained office ; that the leaner of the opposition who so vehemently declaims against the errors of ommission and commission of the persons in power is not expected to avoid committing similar errors when he obtains office. There is an adage in the Northumbrian vernacular bearing on tins point, which, as the blunt language of the North may he unintelligible, may be rendered in more modern English thus—“ Those individua's who possess the faculty of imagination in a high state of development, together with considerable fluency of utterance, ueed to have also in a corresponding Jegreeafaithful and ever-ready memory.” The inference is this, if their memory fails, they are liable to expose one of their gifts while jiractising the other. Put a politician has no need of this retentive memory, as he needs only to disavow 7 his formerly expressed opinions when they clash with hir present prospects. Hence Fox the Author might state that society in Auckland was Algerine, convict, &c.; and Fox the Politician would explain all away by assuring the House that the “ Author” was not acquainted with that part of his subject wdien he wrote those words, or he wuiihl never have penned such a libel on the good citizens of Auckland. Fox in opposition could

charge Sewell with deliberately misleading a Committee of .the House of Commons; the same box could, when he found office could not be attained without Sewell’s alliance. eat the leek publicly, by retracting all the personally offensive terms he had formerly used. Of the scores of instances that might be given of the “ changing” his views of Fox the politician, one more example was when Fox in 1850 ousted Sewell and Whitaker, particularly objecting to the Attorney-Gene-ral (Whitaker) not being a member of the House of Representatives, and immediately afterwards trying his utmost to persuade Whitaker to accept the same office under himself. In this case the change was not the growth of a dozen years, but less than as many days. Hence I submit that it is possible that Fox the Author who criticised Sir George Grey and his flour and sugar policy so severely, may be also Fox the politician, the ardent admirer of Sir G. Grey, and the head of the “ peace at any price” ministry, who have improved on the old system of flour, sugar, and blankets, by substituting plum duff, broadcloth, and bags of sovereigns. Yours, &c., A Saxon. June 35th, IBG2.