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Lyttelton Times, Volume III, Issue 115, 19 March 1853, Page 9

To the Editor of the Lyttelton Times,

Sir,—l was much surprised at reading your remarks, and those of some of your correspondents, in reference to the address lately forwarded to His Excellency the Governor-in-Chief. As one of the signers of that address, perhaps you will allow me to take some notice of the objections urged against it, for the purpose of pointing out and correcting the misapprehension Avhich seems to exist as to its real scope and object. You say that those who sign the address thereby profess themselves " desirous of burying in .oblivion those feelings of animosity and distrust, which, as a matter of course, their signatures attest they once experienced towards His Excellency." Alloav me to say "their signatures attest" no such thing. If you read the address over more carefully than you appear to have done, I think you will agree Avith me that its real purport is to state this general fact — that the Executive and the people have been at variance ; and to express a wish on the part of those Avho sign it, that this state of things should'cease. .1 do not think you will be able to extract any other meaning, unless you adopt (as I hope you will not,) M*r.--Brittan's plan of quoting .incorrectly, by substituting Avords of his own, betAveen inverted-commas, for those actually contained in the document which he professes to1 criticise. You will observe that the difference betAveen us is this—that while I interpret the address as conveying a desire for peace, you and the critics niake'it mean an acknowledgement by the signers of their having been'; individiihlly, in a state of hostility to the Government. {.I insist the more particularly upon vthis distinction as I know instances _of

gentlemen Avho had consistently refrained from politics, and, after signing the address in its plain and natural meaning, were much surprised to find themselves classed Avith a " factious minority." Thus much for the interpretation of this not very obscurely Avoided address. The real question, however, seems to me to be, not Avhether this or that individual has been influenced by feelings of animosity and distrust towards the Governor, but Avhether the community, as a whole, has or has not evinced these feelings in its public acts. Now I maintain that every expression of public opinion in this settlement which has in any Avay professed to embody the sentiments of all the settlers hears me out in asserting that such a feeling of animosity and distrust has existed. The columns of the Lettelton Times, Avhich may at least he taken to represent some part of the community, used actually to teem with attacks upon the Government. Hardly a public meeting has been held at which sentiments of a similar kind have not been received Avith applause, and yet now we are told that these demonstrations Avere merely the Avork of a factious minority. Had this new feeling of attachment to the policy of the Executive really existed, one Avould have supposed that that factious minority might have been easily defeated, the speakers at public meetings, Avho gave expression to sentiments of hostility towards the Government, might have been answered instead of being applauded; andthe objectionable articles in the Lyttelton Times might have been refuted. Then indeed Aye might have said that, as no symptoms of general dissatisfaction had deen manifested in this settlement, an address, expressing a Avish that all past differences should be buried in oblivion, Avas both superfluous and uncalled for. This, however, is so far from being the case, that I find the uniform tendency of public opinion to have been all the other way.

Any attempt to 'draw a veil over such wellknown facts is both hopeless and contemptible. Why not acknowledge like men that we have felt jealousy and distrust toAvards the Executive and that we have, Mr. Brittan among the rest, given expression to these feelings in our public acts ? It is possible that those ." peaceable and loyal inhabitants," in whose names Mr. Brittan speaks, may, individually, have taken no part in the demonstrations to Avhich I allude; but Mr. Brittan's oAvn career is too Avell knoAvn to alloAv room for any plea of this kind in his case—" Littera scripta manet." I appeal from Mr. Brittan of 1853 to Mr. Brittan of 1851. If we consult the records of the earlier period, Aye shall find the Mr. Brittan of that day taking his full share in the popular movement. I find him sighing remonstrances, making speeches at public meetings, and particularly signing that remarkable memorial to Her Majesty, in Avhich he accuses her Majesty's representative of conveying to Her Majesty " inaccuracies and mis-statements." In that memorial Avhich appeared in your number of October 4th, 1851, I find Mr. Brittan "on behalf of the Avhole body of Land-purchasers,'' saying that " His Excellency had been pleased to forward for presentation to your Majesty, two memorials from the General Legislative Council, professing to convey to your Majesty the sentiments of the inhabitants of these islands in accordance with those put forward by His Excellency in the chair of the council." "We deeply grieve to be called upon to represent to your most gracious Majesty that the Memorials thus transmitted, contain many statements xvhich are wholly without foundation." . . .

"We deeply grieve to be compelled thus to point out the inaccuracies and mis-statements Avhich have been conveyed to your Majesty, the more so that these mis-statements have received the sanction of the highest authority in this colony." The memorial concludes with praying her Majesty to grant constitutional government to this "colony as the only means of protecting her Majesty from similar mis-statements in future. Surely Mr. Brittan must have forgotten the existence of this document Avhen he talked about his " Avithers being unwrung"! Now this memorial alone, even if there Avere no other instances to adduce, not only makes Mr. Brittan a party to proceedings which he is hoav so anxious to disclaim, but also implicates a very influential, at that time probably the most influential, portion of the community—" the whole body of Land-purchasers."

With this and such like facts staring him in the face, it is utterly incomprehensible how Mr.

Brittan can assert that he has never evinced " feelings of animosity or jealousy" toAvards the Executive, and that those Avho have evinced such feelings are merely a factious minority. In the midst of this general and nervous eagerness to deny all connection Avith those Avho have been opposed to the- policy of Jttis Excellency the Governor, I may perhaps be allowed to put in my own claim to some share of praise, in having protested, in a letter which I had the honour to address to your editorial self, and which appeared in your impression of the 26th April, 1851, against Avhat I then considered, and do still consider, an unjustifiable system of political warfare ; and I claim the greater merit for this, because, at that time, the current Avas all the other way, and those feelings of devoted attachment to the Executive now so much in vogue, had not as yet been heard of.

Your obedient servant, Henry John Tancred, Christchurch, March 11th, 18&3.

P.S. Owing to my having been absent for the greater part of last Aveek, your paper of the sth instant, did not reach me early enough to get the above letter inserted in your last publication. Since Avriting that letter I find that " Cantab has anticipated me in drawing your attention in a similar direction ; but, as his object in doing so is not exactly the same as mine, I should still feel much obliged if you would insert this in your next paper. My object in mentioning this is, distinctly to disclaim any Avish to impute, as " Cantab" does, any unworthy motives to an individual. I have endeavoured to deal with facts only, and from these facts to shew that such an address as the one in question Avas not altogether uncalled for ; and at the same time, as one of the signers of that address, to call your attention to the fact that its sense and meaning have been very much misrepresented.