CORRESPONDENCE.

Marlborough Press, Volume I, Issue 22, 2 June 1860, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of the Marlborough Press. Sir —An anonymous writer in your issue of the 12 th instant, has stated that “Captain Scott’s knowledge of Queen Charlotte’s Sound was not gained from his own experience, hut from tho New Zealand Pilot.” Let me inform tho reckless Sentinel that Captain Scott had visited AVaitohi, and many times sailed through the Sound, before Sentinel ever heard of such a place as AVaitohi being in existence. In the year 1856 I sailed round Pig Island with Captain Scott, in the Spray, and lie surprised me by liis intimate knowledge of the Sound; lie knew every inlet and cove, and every set of tide; in fact, he seemed as well acquainted with the place as myself, who, I suppose even Sentinel will hardly be silly enough to assert, did not, .in fifteen years’ constant trading, gain some experience, as well of its dangers as its advantages; But Captain Scott, both as a mavinor and a gentleman, is too well known to require any defence from me. All who know him (and who do not?) know that lie would make no statement unless supported by,fact, and the facts gained by personal acquaintance, no more than he would descend to attack under an assumed name the veracity

of one who was absent, and therefore unable to defend himself. _ , „ The latter paragraph in “ Sentinel s letter simply merits contempt, ff he was graceless enough to raise the “ howl when one of our oldest and most respected settlers gave the world the benefit of his valuable opinion as to the respective merits of the harbour of Queen Charlotte Sound and that of Port Underwood; you, sir, ought to have used the editor’s privilege, and have expunged the ungracious epithet, so as not to allow your hitherto respectable journal to become a medium for such cowardly insinuations. Discriminator, in your same paper, vauiitingly asks “Who is Mr. Michael Aldridge.”? I will answer his query by telling him who he is not. He is not one who-bought land in Queen Charlotte Sound from the representations of others, and thus became the dupe of designing land speculators, but who, having a hard-earned experience of the Sound, deliberately choose Port Underwood as the better place, and as u better and more accessible harbour. But who, sir, arc these Picton boxers that arc so ready to knock down every one who opposes them ? Arc they men having a stake in the province anywhere, or have they any knowledge of the places they undertook to praise so much ? Let. Sentinel come out of his box, and Discriminator unkennel, and not stay in his hole snapping at every one who passes him; let us know who he is, that we may judge of his interest, &c. In conclusion, I may be permitted to say, tha#as this is the last time I intend to notice anything that may appear on the merits of our two ports, this Port Underwood had no bolstering. It hitherto has been, and will continue'to be, the port.from which the produce of this province will be shipped, and that as a seafaring man, who knows every inch of the Sound, I pronounce it to be neither a safe nor a good harbour; there is no anchorage from Ship Cove till you reach the bight of Waitohi, and all the distance subject to cross winds and sudden squalls. I have myself, after paying out every inch of chain (25 fathoms), gone bumping on the rocks, without my anchor touching bottom. How this can be called a safe harbour I know not, that is, for sailing vessels. i; I am, &c., Michael Aldridge. Ocean Bay, May 19, 1860.

To the Editor of the Marlborough Tress. Sir —Comparisons are odious. In my last letter I made no comparison between the harbours of Queen Charlotte Sound and Port Underwood. It is generally, if not universally, admitted, that they are both noble harbours.- I think to draw comparisons now between the two is very like a work of supererogation. I think wc should rather bear in mind that about twelve years ago, a party of gentlemen (a selected committee), thoroughly qualified and thoroughly impartial, reported that Newton Bay or Waitohi was the proper port for the Wairau. Their report was confirmed by a wise Governor, Sir George Grey, adopted and ratified by the New Zealand Company, and afterwards accepted as the port town of Wairau by the General Government, and also by the Local Government. And why did the Government of New Zealand, at the moment of granting separation, style Waitohi or Picton as the capital of the Province of Marlborough ? The remarks of Mr. Bowler, as a merchant at the Boulder Bank, are at best only to be viewed as the opinion of an interested party, and I would say again, his remarks arc altogether uncalled-for, they are altogether unnecessary. I am, &c., Sentinel. Wairau, May 29.