Original Correspondence. THE DEPUTATION,

Lake Wakatip Mail, Volume I, Issue 24, 22 July 1863, Page 5

Original Correspondence.

THE DEPUTATION,

To the Editor of the Lake Wikatip Mail. Sib,—Will you permit me to say a word or two on your paper in reference to the memorial and resolutions which I was appointed to submit to his Honor the Superintendent as delegate for Queenstown. I hope the other delegate will not deem me wanting in respect to him if I write in the first person singular—l do it only to simplify my statements. When I succeeded in getting a meeting with the Superintendent, I presented the memorial and resolutions as they were delivered to me, after having been approved of at the " monster meeting," presided over by Mr. Reuben Harris. His Honor refused to receive the memorial, in respect of the terms in which the first resolution was couched, and digressed from the subject for the purpose of commenting upon the Wakatip Mail. Notwithstanding the suavity of his Honor's manner, I consider this as a want of courtesy towards the inhabitants of Queenstown, whose representative I was, and towards me personally, because certain busybodies had connected me with your paper. If the rejection of the memorial was not a want of courtesy to the inhabitants of this district, who had so many grievances; and if an insulting remark regarding a paper with which he supposed I was connected, was not a want of couitesy to me—then lam no judge of what is or is not proper. The report of the interview was published in the Daily Telegraph by me. That report was correct, and I beg to refer the public to it. I find now, upon my return, that Mr. Pyke has been here, and that he has promised the inhabitants and miners to grant all their demands. A few of those in business here—but I am happy to say, only a very few—have, in consequence of this visit, turned round, and are now trying to throw discredit upon the memorial and those who presented it, declaring that the language objected to was insulting, and that the Superintendent was not uncourtcous in rejecting it One or two who are acting thus, were actually concerned in the drawing up of the memorial, and I need not mention the name of Mr. Reuben Harris as its chief promoter. I believe the words "unparalleled ignorance" stuck in his Honor's throat, —but what other terms could better express the fact, particularly after Mr. Pyke's public declaration, that the Government were u entirely ignorant* 1 of the removal of the Camp, &c, and that Mr. Wood was alone to blame. I leave those who have backed out of the memorial to impale themselves on either horn of this dilemma, The statement was true, or else they were wrong in making it, —the statement was true, or Mr. Pyke was wrong in making it. And it follows as a logical deduction that, if the statement was true, the Superintendent was uncourteous in refusing the memorial There are those in Queenstown whose actions are not fitted for Christian communities; and who by slander and otherwise are attempting to throw doubts upon my report of the reception accorded to the delegates. I feel satisfied, however, that 1 possess the sympathy and confidence of the more respectable portion of the inhabitants, and so Jong as that is the case, I don't much care about the fussy ones. J. B. Bradshaw. +