MX. CURTIS AGAiN.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume II, Issue 52, 4 March 1867, Page 2

MX. CURTIS AGAiN.

Sik — "Xou having permitted me to notice Mr. Curtis's singular intuitive abilities in the matter of land valuation, and the immense advantages the the province would confer upon itself by having a Superintendent of superhuman qualifications to manage its affairs, I shall shortly examine another item or two of the logical, convincing, and granr.iloquous arguments he used in his hour and three-quarters (not two hours) speech, on the evening of the 14th ult. The references which he made to the unfortunate <£SOOO-boat, manifested a desire, on the part of the aspiring gentleman, to soothe the sorrows of his hearers for its loss, by pouring some very pure oil of consolation tipon their afflicted minds. He told them the Nelson was the first craft to stimulate the West Coast trade and cross the Hokitika bar, and that it had hastened the discoveries that followed ; for had the mutter been Jeft to sailing vessels, the gold discoveries and the presence of a large mining population might have been postponed lor years. The iact is, that the matter was left to sailing vessels ; nor was it till the digging population of the West Coast had created a necessity for some powerful craft to visit their locality that the Nelson was despatched. When the demand required such a vessel as the Nelson to proceed thither, it was laid on. And to make a statement opposed to this fact, is to denounce the directory under which she sailed as a body of speculating imbeciles. Was Mr. Curtis one of them ? If he was, why did he box his own ears on the occasion of his speech, by endeavoring to make it appear that the directors of the trust, under whom the Nelson sailed, were equally if not more intent on giving the province a gold field than in employing their vessel in the most profitable possible manner. The Nelson was not purchased for the purpose of opening up gold-fields any more than ior anyother paya '>le speculation. Neither do her managers deserve either praise or sympathy because she went down on that particular work. She might have been lost in a trip to any other port, as well as to Hokitika, in the Province of Canterbury. But why did Mr. Curtis and his mates send her out of the province if it was a gold-field for Nelson they merely desired ? Why did he talk any nonsense whatever about the unfortunate vessel, in calling her an opener up of gold-fields ? She was merely a trader to a gold-field, not a prospector of any known gold country, lor Mr. Curtis to take credit to himself and co-trustees for being the explorers of Westland, is doing a manifest injustice to the brave diggers who really initiated that great Avork. Toani Periki, the Maori who picked up the first big nugget nineteen and a half ounces in weight, may be ascribed a considerable amount of praise, with some show of justice; but to a parcel of carpet-room gold prospectors, or land valuators, notwithstanding any amount of showninn boast, bounce, or bluster, Mr. Curtis may utter, not a word of honor or praise is due. One might as well praise a hungry man for eating his dinner, as extol a carpeted counting house speculator for investing in a profitable adventure ; the more especially if he be trafficking with other people's, or with public money, Mr. Curtis exposed his remarkable want of tact, as well as his deficiencies as a special pleader in dealing with the loss of the unfortunate Kelson, But bis audacity culminated

when he told the meeting, to be thankful, for they had a gold-field ; equally logically and to the purpose, he might" have congratulated his audience that Blind Bay was still in existence, or that the sun and moon had not ceased to shine on our beloved city. Tis a blessing they are not absorbed in the superior brilliancy of the light which flashes from the intellectual horations of Mr. O. Curtis. I am, sir. OITE -WHO STOOPS OVER THE SPADE.