CANON STOWELL AND THE REV. H. H. BROWN.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 63, 11 September 1862, Page 3

CANON STOWELL AND THE REV. H. H. BROWN.

To the Editor of the New Zealander. Sir, —Herewith I semi you a Taranaki Herald , containing a portion of the correspondence with Canon Stowell. As you have inserted the letter of Canon Stowell to my London correspondent, and as that letter contains (in an extract from a letter of the Rev. Henry Venn, Hon. Cler. Sec. C. M. S.) reflections upon myself, I trust that, as a matter of fair play, you will give publicity to my reply to the “ false and slanderous” statement of Mr. Venn. I have, &c., Henry H. Brown. Taranaki, August 16th, 1862. Taranaki, New Zealand, August 14th, 1862. Rev. Sir, —Having entrusted to a London correspondent the decision as to the course to be taken with regard to any notice which you might take of my letter to you, I am, for the present, precluded from offering any observations upon the letter which was written by you to him, and which seems to have been published in the Manx Sun. Embodied in that letter, however, is a letter to you from a “ London official of the Church Missionary Society ” —Mr. Venn, I presume. As you have thus given publicity to his remarks upon me, I feel at liberty to publish a reply to them, although I withhold all comment upon your own remarks. Mr. Venn's letter contains the following words, “ Mr. Brown has also written a letter of remonstrance to me for allowing our printing press in New Zealand to print, as he terms them, such “false and slanderous” pamphlets as those of Sir W. Martin, late Chief Justice of New Zealand, Sir W. Denison, Governor of Sydney, and a Mr. Turner, one of the most respectable settlers.” I enclose a copy of ray letter to Mr. Venn, that you may decide for yourself whether I have applied to the works in question the words “ false and slanderous,” or any epithets at all like them or equivalent to them. You will perceive that no such words are to be found in my letter. From Mr. Venn’s inaccuracy (to say the least of it) about ray letter, which he saw himself, you may judge of the amount of reliance to be placed upon his authority with regard to affairs at the antipodes. You may likewise decide for yourself whe-

ther Mr. Venn has fairly represented to you the ground which I have taken. You will perceive that I maintained that it is an abuse of a mission press to employ it in the publication of any political works whatever. A Missionary Society, as such, can have no political opinions, whatever may be the private opinions of individual subscribers or officials. Therefore, if the machinery of a Missionary Society, is employed m giving expression to political opinions, it is really individuals who make use of the Society as a speaking-trumpet in order to give thelouderutterancetotheirown opinions. Ido not complain of Mr. Venn or his colleagues for “ thinking me mistaken ; ” but I do complain of them for using the machinery of the Church Missionary Society in impressing their own views upon the public mind. ° The reference to Mr. Turner as “ one of our most respectable settlers ” is somewhat amusing to us on the spot, who know the circumstances, and (among others) how Mr. Turner has, from the commencement of the war to the present day, been drawing pay and rations for bearing arms against the Maories, whose cause he professes to advocate so warmly. As the word “ Christian ” does not occur in my letter, Mr. Venn, by placing it between inverted commas, cannot mean to indicate that it is a quotation. Therefore, the apparent inference is, that he means it as the sneering insinuation of a doubt whether I am entitled to be called a Christian. Whether lam, or am nor, entitled to that name must be decieed by a higher Judge than Mr. Venn, I may venture, however to remark that views similar to my own are entertained by men of character, from whom even Mi’. Venn himself would scarcely withhold the title of Christian. Among others who might be named, our present Chief Justice Arney has publicly declared that Taranaki has never received justice either from the general or Imperial Government. I remain, Reverend Sir, Your obedient servant, Henry H. Brown. Rev. Canon Stowell.