THE NAPIER CORRESPONDENT OF THE NEW ZEALAND ADVERTISER.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume III, Issue 139, 11 September 1863, Page 3

THE NAPIER CORRESPONDENT OF THE NEW ZEALAND ADVERTISER.

We entertain a high opinion of our contemporary the New Zealand Advertiser, as a tearless supporter of public opinion, and the only paper in Wellington which makes any attempt to keep Br. Featherston’s Government in proper order, but we regret to observe and to be obliged to say that that paper does not appear to have succeeded in establishing a very reliable correspondent in this part, it we may judge from the specimen and sample which appeared in the Herald the other day, and which sample would lead one to suppose that the writer was a very testy and not very creditable individual. Nothing could be more illustrative of our meaning than the fact of the confused ideas which pervade the document as touching the veracity of the press of this Province. We suppose he means us when he talks about the “ other paper,” for we don’t pretend to be under Government influence, for which blessing we are truly thankful; and herein lies the proof of the Advertiser correspondent’s pudding. Our most bitter enemy cannot accuse us of following suit to the Herald, that is quite certain ; and therefore, judging from the imputations in that behalf cast upon us, it is fair to say that the gentleman’s information upon other matters is just as incorrect. If the parties in this port who were most particularly interested in the Royal Bride are satisfied that the wreck, and the circumstances which attended that wreck are all fair and above-board, surely we ourselves and the New Zealand Advertiser s correspondent ought to be satisfied. It would be more in the interests of the mercantile community of this place to prove that the vessel in question was lost by sheer negligence on the part of the skipper or her crew than that that unfortunate occurrence should be attributed to any fault in our roadstead. Clearly, if the underwriters and insurance offices become convinced that Ahuriri roadstead in Hawke’s Bay is unsafe, the merchants of the populous and flourishing port had better shut up shop. Up to this date no attempt has been made on the part of the merchants of Napier to sift the matter, and therefore we, in common with the mass of the people, are much more willing, in absence of any proof to the contrary, to take Mr. Murray’s account of the affair than the account given by the mysterious and bilious individual whose needy pen has been giving another version of the affair to the Advertiser. In one thing, however, the gentleman is right enough, and that is as regards Mr. Colenso and his views and prospects.