MR BOUSFIELD'S REPLY TO THE HERALD.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 13, Issue 661, 4 March 1869, Page 3

MR BOUSFIELD'S REPLY TO THE HERALD.

To the Editor of the Hawke's Bay Times. Sir, —I observe a paragraph in the Hawke's Bay Herald in which the editor acknowledges the publication in your columns of a letter of mine devoted to the exposure of the fallacies and errors of his "own" correspondent from this place, and by way of clinching the argument, and as a sort of set-oft' againsb that individual's shortcomings, the Editor charges me with the heinous crime of holding a sinecure office —the ostensible object and general character of which, according to that imparbial critic, is "puffing" Colonel "Whitmore. Ido not, however, see what connection there is between my office and Mr Hawthorne's letters.

If it is holding a " sinecure " office to be present in every action and skirmish, and to join each long and dreary march of this summer's campaign ; if it is a sinecure to lie anight for weeks together in one's clothes in all weathers, with a saddle for a pillow and arms for a covering —sharing all the dangers, privations, and fatigues of our little army; if, I repeat, it is a sinecure to explore and survey unknown tracks of wilderness, with possible wounds or death meeting you in every bush and from every vantage ground 5 alone your path ; if that is a sinecure office, all I can say about it is that it is the hardest worked and most unpleasant office I ever filled, and I have had a pretty long experience in that line of life.

I take the preatest possible pleasure in usnng ray pen in support and defence of Colonel "Whitmore upon every occasion which offers. That gentleman is about the most unjustlytreated public servant I every heard of Serving his country at the risk of his life and fortune, sacrificing all domes+ic and other ties in the hope that he may save this unhappy country from utter ruin by devoting his time and talents to her cause, his wages are abuse, insult, and contumely. This life and death struggle between the two races, Europeans and Maoris, instead of being viewed in its real light—that of a national question —is, for miserable little political purposes, turned into a party question. The Hawke's Bay Herald, unfortunately, is not the only journal which takes that view of the matter. And so long as that is che case, this concest never can, in any hands or under any system, end in other than disaster and disgrace.

I flatter myself that I am consistent in a total disbelief in Mr M'Lean and all his works. "When editing the Hawke's Bay Times some few years ago, I warned the people of Hawke's Bay of the consequences "which would inevitably follow Mr M'Lean's advent amongst them. I therein pointed out the certain results which would come of the Government of that Province, viz., that Hawke's Bay would remain a wilderness, that her best lands would fall into the hands of a small clique, and be for ever closed to all practical and useful occupation ; in short, that the whole of the rich and valuable natural resources of that fine Pro vince would be closed. Was I not right in those predictions 1 Hawke's Bay answers from every hill and dale, from every desolate valley and stream, "True, too true !" And I will go further and say that Mr M'Lean's native policy is the greatest sham, delusion, and snare that any unfortunate country could .suffer from; and it will be a worse day for the Colony of New Zealand when that policy again comes into operation than even these dark and gloomy times.

But I suppose had I remained under the paternal wing of your ."liberal and enlightened" local Government, I and my children would have starved, at all events in an orthodox manner, acting Lazarus, and picking up the crumbs that fall from your political Dives' table. Thank God that dieadful death, or that equally dreadful life, has been spared us.

Who talks loudest of sinecures , and puffing 1 Who talks and writes 3 of virtuous indignation of the unfortunate taxpayer 1 Who 1 Why the Hawke's Bay Herald, a paper which has an annual subsidy of at least £SOO a year, screwed somehow out of the exhausted Provincial treasury, ) —the paper whose interest lies in 5 bolstering up the most tyrannical i and incapable Government in a ! small way that ever disgraced the ■ earth. What has Mr M'Lean done • for the country that we should all • bow down the knee and worship , him ? How has your Province fared under his protecting wing? Do your valleys laugh with corn, and do your hills bring forth the vine and the olive under his rule 1 Has he provided schools and hospitals for the people 1 Has he executed great and useful public works with all those thousands of pounds which have passed through his hands 1 Has he caused the tide of immigration to set into your shores? Has he cheapened the necessaries of life, and rendered the poor man's lob the lighter, and the rich man's the richer, by his Government ? Has he done any one of those things % No, he has not, and ne\er will; but he has, I admit, done one, and only one, memorable thing in his mighty career. He has erected a TOLL-GATE—a very appropriate monument certainly. The memory of that great fact, at all events, will live when all his other works have faded, " and like the baseless fabric of a vision left not a rack behind"; and the name of Mr M'Lean will be coupled with that iniquitous institution to the third and fourth generation of them that hate it.—Yours, &c, 0. L. W. Bousfield. Poverty Bay, Feb. 12, 1869, . ■ ' , : ' : ' ( , i ] , < '■ , < < ' ' ; ' j i ' j , i '