CORRESPONDENCE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume IV, Issue 192, 2 September 1854, Page 7

CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of the Lyttelton Times,

Sir, —If my own obscurity has been the cause, I can readily pardon Dr. Barker for having misunderstood me; but if he believed on that account that an apology was owing, he must, I think, feel that another is not less due for misrepresenting me.

On a careful perusal of my letter he cannot fail to perceive how I have studiously avoided obtruding upon your readers any deductions of my own from what Mr. Godley writes. I offered them only a simple, and, —as far as I am myself concerned, —a truthful statement.

Mr. Godley's honesty of purpose is sufficiently vouched for by all that the colonists have ever known of him. I content myself, for my own part, with a plain assertion that no "trick," either "ingenious " or "stale," is to be discovered from anything my letter contains.

I cannot agree that the opinion of Mr. Selfe, a gentleman of unimpeachable integrity and a barrister of repute, is altogether inadmissible—even had he not been, as he generally was, opposed to the acts of the majority of the Committee of Management. For in giving an opinion he had also a reputation to preserve. Dr. Barker would be loth to admit as valid any such objection against himself in a professional case. For one result to follow upon proof before a proper tribunal of the invalidity of the Titles now in question, the objectors have hardly yet prepared the minds of their fellow colonists. I mean the immediate withdrawal of all the funds devoted to the Religious and Educational institutions which constitute the chief attraction of the Canterbury Settlement. It were well for them to pause and ponder over that result. I regret to feel precluded from the further discussion of the several questions upon which Dr. Barker enters, as he does so in a spirit and with language which the courtesies of newspaper correspondence as generally understood (except sometimes in colonies) appear hardly to allow. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, J. W. Hamilton. Lyttelton, August 30th, 1854. To the Editor of the Lyttelton Times. Sir, —The contemplation of a Railway connecting the Port and the Plains, must for the present be abandoned. We have neither the money, nor the labour to do it with—and the Canterbury colonists cannot afford to put up with the present state of communication with the Port and the shipping. Something must be done, and that immediately, to effect the getting of our surplus produce exported —or Canterbury can't go ahead. There are 3 proposed plans before your readers, viz -.—the Sumner bar done and a steamer put on the berth—Mr. Dobson's plan of a dray road over Mount Pleasant—and Mr. Hughes's plan. Taking it for granted that a steam pier must be made in Port—and also taking ..it for granted that Capt. Parsons' proposed site is the best, then I should be inclined to follow up Mr. Hughes's plan to a certain extent, say to Mr. Kennaway'shouse. His plan is good so far, but beyond, in my opinion, wrong; too much private property is cut up, without its equivalent in benefit. Why not

come over the Heathcote by a bridge at Kennaway's, across Section 31 into the occupation road that divides Sections 31 and 14, and then the junction with the Ferry road would be less than half a mile from the Quay—and follow that up with a new Quay at the Bridge on the Ferry Road ? I am Sir, Your's, &c, A Looker On. Lyttelton, 30th August, 1854.