To the Editor of the Marlborough Express.

Marlborough Express, Volume IV, Issue 153, 16 January 1869, Page 5

To the Editor of the Marlborough Express.

‘ ‘ Sacerdotcs proditionis accusant Sib, —Calumnies that have never been proved, or have been often refuted, are the ordinary postulates upon which scurrilous writers rear their superstructure. Were this generally acceptable, praise and reproach would soon cease to be motives of action in good men. W.N. has shown himself in his true colors—as an enemy of the Christian faith, and of its teachers. He brings forward no proof that the Christian missionaries are the authors of the Maori troubles. He who joins in a popular falsehood, or party lie, knowing it to be so, must be an utter stranger to the principles of natural religion and Christianity. If the uttering of the blackest calumnies and lies constitute a patriot, truly sir, we may find many such ! On the other hand, to pass, as the Christian missionaries of New Zealand have, through imminent dangers ; suffer painful watchings, frightful alarms, and laborious duties, for the greater part of a man’s time ; and to pass the rest in a sobriety conformable to the rules of a virtuous civil life, is a merit too great to deserve the treatment it usually meets with from the other part of the world.

The Christian missionaries of this country have always endeavored to teach the Maoris to fear God and honor the Queen, —have at all times exerted themselves in the cause of law and order, —have often greatly assisted the Government in dealing with the Maoris, —and .are at the present time sufferers in common with their fellow-colonists.

W.K would have us believe that these men are traitors to their Queen and country—promoters of civil strife, and teachers of sedition yet he denies classing them with the “scum of rascaldom ” Let the public judge whether he has or not. He has never, forsooth, met with those who put their religion on and off as Rauperaha did his blanket, yet he admits meeting scores who put it on as a cloak to cover their designs ; did they keep their cloaks on ever after ? Finally, sir, W.N. takes the opportunity of attacking the whole body of Christians, from its great founder downwards, and therefore can excite in future only pity and contempt from all good men he may choose to slander, and from myself.—l am, &c., O.N.E.