CANON STOWELL, THE CHURCH MISSIONARIES, AND THE NEW ZEALAND SETTLERS.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 60, 21 August 1862, Page 6 (Supplement)

CANON STOWELL, THE CHURCH MISSIONARIES, AND THE NEW ZEALAND SETTLERS.

(To the Editor of Ilona's Herald.) Taranaki, New Zealand, 7th February, IRG2. Sib, —I am informed that in your issue of November 3 (or in the preceding number), 3-011 have published a speech delivered by the Rev. Canon Sto well, before the Douglas Branch of the Isle of Man Auxiliary to the Church Missionary Society. In that speech are many statements so utterly untrue and so cruelly unkind, that in behalf of my maligned fellow-settlers 1 ask you to publish the following contradiction of them. In opposition to the reverend Canon’s assertions, I deiy, Ist, that the emigrants arc “ grasping, unfair, and oppressive 2nd, that they caused the war ; 3rd, that they have “to a great extent pillaged the natives of their lands.” ° In opposition to the reverend Canon's assertions, I assert —Ist, that the rebels are, almost without exception, Christians, to not a few of whom I have myself administered the Lord's supper. 2nd, That they themselves caused the war by an illegal combination against the Queen’s supremacy, which their chiefs had acknowledged by the treaty of Waitangi. 3rd, That they have carried on the war with circumstances of great barbarity, slaughtering all (except one) whom the}" could got into their power, unarmed as well as armed, and even mere lads who never carried arms at all. -itii, That in their counsels they deliberately discussed and adopted a design for theutter extermination of all the white’people in Taranaki—men, women, and children—with a few specified exceptions, of which I myself was to be one. This I had from the lips of rebels who themselves did their best to execute the bloody design. Such is the “ brightest gem in the diadem of the Church Missionary Society”—(ho “ beautiful specimen of the work of Christ in these davs.” I forbear to add move, for 1 have written more at large to Canon Stoweli. I have challenged him to prove his assertions. If he cannot establish them then, as a fellow man, a fellow Christian, and a fellow clergyman, 1 call upon him to acknowledge his error at least as publicly as ho uttered Ills calumnies (unintentionally, i. llrmly believe) against an industrious and moil'ensive body of settlers. I ask you in common justice to insert this contradiction to the calumnies to which you have given publicity. If you accede to my request, will you kindly favor mo with a copy of the paper in which ny letter appears ? I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 11 n y 11. Buowy, Minister (Church of England,) Of Omata, in the Province of Taranaki. To the Editor of the Manx Sun. Sin, —Will yon oblige mo by inserting in your next number the subjoined copy of a letter sent by me to a London friend of the Rev. 11. 11. Brown, with whom ho requested me to communicate on the subject of the speech which I delivered at a Church Missionary Meeting in Douglas, last October. I am, Sir, Yours &c., UuGir Stoweli. Manchester, April 23, 1832. Sin, —Your note found mo on the point of writing to yon at Mr. Brown’s suggestion. I -will frankly and fully tell yon what I am prepared and what I am not prepared to do in the matter on which your friend has written to you as well as. to me. Having found that the private information which I had received respecting the embroilment in New Zcw Zealand, and under the influence of which I spoke very warmly in Douglas, was onesided and partial, I am prepared to cxpi'css in the Douglas paper (and, so far as I know, no part of my address in that, town lias appeared in any publication this side of the Channel) my regret tha) I used strong language in reference to the colonists. I am further prepared to state what does not clearly appear from the report of my speech that the strongest things which I said wore not directed against the colony at large, but against those vagrants and outcasts from England and Ireland