Correspondence.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VI, Issue 431, 20 December 1856, Page 6

Correspondence.

To the Editor of the Lyttelton Times. Sir, —Having carefully studied the letter which his Honor tho Superintendent has addressed to the electors of Lyttelton,—l would I beg to offer through the medium of your | columns a few observations, for the persual of my follow colonists and brother electors. Believing the subjects treated on in that letter to bo of vital importance to the welfare of the colony at large, as well as to ourselves, I think it is necessary that some one should publicly express an opinion on the policy it contains, and not allow it to pass into oblivion like a nine days' wonder, to be known no more. Having, from an early period after my arrival in the settlement, taken a lively interest in the public affairs of my adopted country, and having, when occasion required it, expressed my opinions, regardless of the praise or odium which those opinions might bring down, so in the present case I shall not hesitate to declare my views, without regard to the sneers which arc too often the only reward of honesty and candour. Most of the men I meet arc ever ready to exclaim against the expences of the Government, to make economy their watch word, and to repudiate with honest indignation alt taxation. Some few of these, perhaps, are merely echoes of the sounds they hear, and are unable to give a reason for the faith that's in them ; but they are, I believe, a very small minority, and the principles of government and public * duty are with them but secondary considerations* with the price of nobblcrs and bacca. As I believe it to be the duty of every man to lead his fellows to the path of truth, so would I now address myself to every intelligent man in the colony.and beg of him, if he has one latent spark of patriotism in his breast.to " read, mark, and inwardly digest" the Fitzgerald letter, and I believe that there will be very few who, having fairly and impartially considered the reasoning therein contained.* will not, like myself, arrive at this conclusion that, that man, and he only who makes this policy bus own, is the proper one to represent us in the General Assembly. A general election is not far distant, and though I may raise a hornet's nest about my ears in thus publicly enunciating my convictions, I care not —those convictions are honest and not hastily arrived at. Considering that any attempt on my pari to improve his Honor's arguments would be but " gilding refined gold," I have generalised my expression of approval, my only object being to set the masses thinking, so that when the day of election comes they may be prepared to act, and so secure to ourselves and our children not the shadow but the substance of Liberty. C. J. R.

To the Editor of the Lyttelton Times. Sm, —I beg to solicit a short space in your journal, in answer to the anonymous attack made on me by a person who facetiously styles himself" a Master Mariner" and emblazons" my name several times at full length, while he screens his own and attack's me from a masked battery. However, his efforts to disguise himj self do not serve him in this case, as I well j know my assailant to be an old political oppo- } nent and an officer of the government. On the | subject of Light Houses and Pilot Stations I acknowledge my ignorance, and may be allowed to j ask the rather verdant "Master Mariner"where |he obtained his skill and judgment from. When he arrived here he was only a short time out of his teens, and, pending his quartering himself on the public, he made a few trips in the little schooner Palinurus about the Peninsula. The result of his brilliant observations he lias given to your readers in his. Jong letter of the 10th instant, among which is the erection of a light house on Cape Terawiti, situated 10 miieMo the north of Wellington heads in Cook's Straits, and 175 miles from this port; another on Tairoa's Head, nearly a similar distance from here, that being the south-east head of Otago, and the only Tiroas bead on this Inland. _ Sir, his attachment to let'er writing is proverbial, for, since he introduced a letter' of recommendation on his arrival in this colony, he has written more sheets of foolscap than any man in this province on subjects for the advancement and glory of this Betflement. Basking in the sunshine of a hinectire appoiutment, he con-i-iders he b; doing the Government essential

service in using his accomplished pen for their good; as evinced by his exaltation of a letter bearing the initials of " .1. W,'*, which said letter I can prove to contain deliberate untruths, was published during my absence from homo, and will bt> be refuted in a short time, when I can obtain the minutes of the Council. In conclusion, I would recommend the grave Mariner to the words of Sir Walter Scott, who compared a man who conscientiously opposed abuse or nuisances to a horseman riding through a village, when every cur is barking at his heels. I remain. Sir, Your obliged Servant, 11. Davis. [As Mr. Davis has put bis name to the above letter we consent to insert it; but we hope that for our sake, if not for his own, ho will not again ask us to publish his private opinions of individuals as part of a series of argumentative correspondence.—Ed. L. T.]