The Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, MONDAY, 31st JULY, 1865.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 6, Issue 293, 31 July 1865, Page 2

The Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, MONDAY, 31st JULY, 1865.

In the columns of our contemporary on Saturday last, we observed a communication from the penof ourrespectedfellow-townsman, W. Colenso, Esq., in reply to a most vile and slanderous attack upon him that appeared in a previous issue, under the signature of “ Fact.” We should have been glad to have given this letter a place in our columns, but ‘ as it appears in (he Government organ, where, indeed, the attack was printed, it , does not seem necessary for us to do. so. It * is quite evident that the dastardly individual who has been guilty of making the false and scandalous assertions referred to, had the indention by this means of so far damaging the status of Mr C. as to prevent his return as our representative in the approaching r election, Mr C. was to have sailed for Wellington on the 21st; the letter would not appear till the 25 th, Mr C. would not sec it until it had done its evil work. Of course he would Ire able to disprove it in its en- ' tirety, but he would te out of the council, ’ had thatiswhat whs wanted. But the diar ireUcal scheme, through the delay of the Eg-

mont, has broken down—has proved the most complete failure possible, for Mr Colenso had not left the town on the morning of its publication; but was in Napier to read the libel—to triumphantly expose the scheme —and to turn the torrent of the writer’s poison back upon his own head. For never was there a more triumphant reply,—-never a more thorough vindication of an innocent individual from the false charges of an enemy. Assertion is answered by fact, and while Colenso is vindicated, his foe stands convicted. We cannot do better than place the charges side by side with their refutation, that at one glance it may be seen how the matter stands;— THE FALSE CHARGES, THE VINDICATION'. 1. That Mr C., in the Mr C’s. salary was but time of Fitz Gerald’s £l5O, and was not for superintendence, sold any sinecure office, but himself and the people for hard work for the for a sinecure office and public good—work that a salary of £250. was appreciated by the electors, who have repeatedly returned him as their member. 2. That the Church He never received any Missionary Society paid sum from the Society Mr Colenso, besides for the improvements reother sums for the im- ferred to. The Society provementa at Wai- paid a portion of the tangi, two lump sums of outlay on a large mission £7O and £92. house there, which was burnt down in 1853. 3. That he also re- £3OO only was the ceived a sum of public award of the arbitrators money, the same being on the occasion of his a second payment for being deprived of the those improvements, Waitangi property. This amounting to £350. award was backed by the people and their petition to the General Assembly at the time. It was so far from compensation that he would have given £4OO to have remained and enjoyed his improvements. 4. That during the A resolution was past year he had passed in the House af- “ bagged” £SOO of pub- firming tho desirability lie money through his of such an undertaking advocating the prepara- and recommending that tion of a Lexicon of the when the finances of the Maori language, having Colony would permit, a carried his motion and sum of money be degot the job. The book voted to the purpose, may or may not have This is all. No Lexibeen written, but Mr C. eon has been published has “nobbled” the £SOO. —no sum devoted or even named for that purpose. —As this artful dodge of the Government party has so signally failed, let us hope that their other tricks will fail likewise. We have done our best to expose them, that they may be seen in their true light—being convinced that they have only to he exposed to meet the failure they so richly deserve. Even while we are writing they are darkly, secretly, working to prevent the return of the man who, even by themselves it is ad - mitted, is best fitted to fill the office ; —not working openly by addressing the electors through the medium of the press, hut rat or mole-like, underhandedly bringing their influence to bear upon such of the electors as they believe can he swayed ; —secretly in the hope that the popular party may suppose that they have no candidate, and perchance relax their efforts, only to discover their error at the hustings, and when too late. But, happily, this little dodge, like the rest, has fallen through. The electors are aware of it, and will not be driven to the hustings like sheep, at the will of the squatocratic interest, but will return their old and tried friend, William Colenso.