CORRESPONDENCE.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 66, 10 June 1843, Page 263

CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of the Nelson Examiner. Sir — It is with the greatest astonishment that I see the following passage copied into your paper from the Wellington Colonist .- — " We have, frdm more than one source, heard that attempts have been made at Nelson to deter passengers from proceeding to this place, by representations as ungenerous as they are unfounded, about the harbour, &c." Now, sir, no ship has been here, on her Way to Wellington, for a long time, with the exception of the Phoebe. To the passengers by her we might appeal as to the truth of the statement contained in the Colonist. Was not the advice given to them "universally the same, vi 2., " Go and see the other settlements before you fix on your future residence"? What the sources are from which the Colonist has derived its information it is hard to conceive ; for I think we can with safety say that it is not our custom to decry the other settlements. As we have nothing to fear from Wellington, there can be no jealousy between us : we are far too independent of each other. If I may make use of so tv quoque a kind of argument, it would appear that the people of Wellington, having for a long tune been running this place down, thought it most probable we should take notice of it, and, according to the system adopted by some people, they try to blacken the character of the witnesses likely to appear against them. I passed some time at Wellington, and every day heard both this place and Auckland abused and ridiculed. I was told by some that the settling of this place was " such a delusion as had never before been practised on a credulous people." I was assured that two clergymen had died of the " Nelson fever ;" and many and various were the awful stories related of the great mortality at this place. As to the story of the clergymen, I could give many reasons to prove that they did not die of fever .caught at Nelson, but one is enough, which is, they never had been to Nelson. Some persons told me that there was no water — others that the whole place was a swamp. Some (I suppose not having been able to fly their kites) complained of the want of wind. In short, with but two or three exceptions, I heard nothing but ill spoken of the place ; which system of abuse and petty jealousy is, I am sure, in no way returned by Nelson folk, either towards Wellington (although " the first and principal settlement") or any other one in New Zealand, but, on the contrary, is most strongly deprecated by them as being calculated to excite in the minds of persons at home an injurious suspicion of the whole colony, and a distrust of there being any serious or profitable business proceeding where the minds of men are occupied with such small backbitings, and where such shortsightedness is shown in trying to raise one settlement at the expense of the others. But I fear I have already trespassed on your valuable space, and will therefore conclude by hoping that this is the lasl we shall hear of such foolish bickerings. I remain, sir, Yours, One who has visited and is acquainted with the State of both Settlements. Nelson, May 31.

To the Editor of the Nelson Examiner. Sir — Your last number, containing an extract from the Port Nicholson Colonist, has taken us simple folks up here all aback, and your bland remarks upon it have impressed us all with a deep sense of your Christian forbearance and philosophic temper. We won't have it this way though. We are so matter-of-fact as to have taken it into our heads that there is a great deal more in it than a duet on the Panpipes. We think it is something, to be called ugly names, and to take them without getting into a passion j but to be attacked by the party that has been doing this, accused of their own filthy practices, and remonstrated with in a calm, patronizing, dominie kind of tone — 'pon my life its more than a jackass could stand. Do you remember Moliere's Georges DandinF — how the poor, honest man, coming home one evening, catches his wife engaged with a gay Lothario ; but, instead of getting into the house, and having an opportunity of letting off his superfluous indignation, has the door slammed in his face, and, to his utter confusion, is assailed by this very wife from an upper window with a shower of abuse, and called sot, caterwauler, faithless, heartless villain, and all the other nice phrases which women find so near the tips of their tongues on similar emergencies. I could not help thinking of poor Georges when I read the article in the Colonist. I cogitated whether it was probable that the editor 'had this scene before his eyes when he wrote the article in question; but, upon second thoughts, I see that it is not necessary to make any such supposition: it has always been a favourite tactic with those who know themselves to be in the wrong, and are afraid of being called to account for it! it Would; therefore (don't you think so, Mr. Editor ?), suggest itself just as naturally to the Colonist as it did to Madame Dandm, and as it always has done to all manner of shrews and old women. Bnt let us look at the article in question. He starts by saying that " he has heard from more than one source that attempts have been made at Nelson to deter passengers from proceeding to this place [Wellington], by representations, as unfounded as they are ungenerous, of the character of the harbour and the nature of the country." He then proceeds — " that it would be a matter of regret to him to find that such was really the case." But, towards the close of the article, we read, " that representations of •the character to which we refer have been very assiduously inculcated among those emigrants who intended to proceed to this place we cannot

doubt." Now, pray observe, in the very stating of his case, what a singularly tortuous mind our Colonist exhibits. He cannot say at once that he believes such and such to be the case, but allows us to buoy up our hopes with the idea that he does not believe the foul accusation which he has heard brought against us ; but, then, alas ! when we approach the conclusion of his article, he dashes them to the ground, and tells us that we are guilty. We beat our breasts in despair ; but the keenest anguish is felt when we picture to ourselves the poignancy of his feelings, the ruffling of his editorial serenity. Mr. Examiner, if you had written the fir6t sentence quoted (we could have done without the regretting twaddle of the second), and the third, substituting Port Nicholson for Nelson (by the by, is " inculcated among " a correct expression ? I think at school we used to say inculcated upon), I wonder if any one could have said that you had written the thing which was not true. But, if you had written the sentence which says tbat " It is probable that the conduct to which we refer prevails only among a few persons, influential neither by their number nor their position," I could have told you, Mr. Examiner, that you were quite out ; for I have been to Port Nicholson, and I have heard from as good sources as the Colonist possesses, viz., my own ears, " representations as ungenerous as they were unfounded," with regard to Nelson, and current among men who, whether influential or not, were at all events supposed to be so thefe, and, if not gentlemen, were at least, as Sam Wetter says, " wery good imitations.*' We find the word " generous " made use of more than once by the Colonist ; and, the idea having suggested itself to him, we might have expected some amplification. But devil a bit. We coon find how the wind blows at Port Nicholson. "We have nothing to hope from ite assistance. "In its strength our stability will be increased." "By the adbption of such measures, we must be equally benefitted, and we may even anticipate from them more direct and immediate advantages." " Any augmentationi n the wealth of the Nelson settlement will give a fresh impulse to the tirade Of this port, and will thus directly turn to our profit." Most generous Editor of the Colonist, you have an excellent eye to self. The word generous occurs twice in your article, but the whole of it is devoted to our interests. Could you ndt have pictured to yourself, and, through the medium of your types, to your readers, a body of colonists about to form a settlement under the same auspices as Port Nicholson, arriving from England, and locating themselves upon a wilderness shore, with all the difficulties attendant upon such an enterprise before them ? Could you not have pointed out to your fellow settlers that it was their duty, as it ought to have been their pleasure, to assist and encourage them ? And when you observed, as you must have done, with regret, that an opposite feeling prevailed — that the passengers in ships bound to this new settlement were overwhelmed by the most discouraging statements of its soil and climate, and earnestly advised not to go there; by which means the spirit of the settlers was damped, and some even left New Zealand altogether — could it not haveoccurred to you to show how ungenerous such conduct was ; how paltry, even supposing the settlements to be rivals, ana in all respects equal; but, according to your own shewing, not being rivals, and standing in the relation of elder and younger sisters, how severely it called for the reprobation of all men of right feeling, of all who wished the colonization of New Zealand to prosper ? We must in common charity suppose that the Colonist knew nothing of this which was going on in Port Nicholson : at the same time, we cannot but renlark how strange it is that the editor of a newspaper, whose duty it is to observe the events of the times and the pulse of public feeling, should be ignorant of what was passing under his own spectacles, while possessing such a telescopic vision, and such a delicate sensitiveness towards any attack upon his own pet place. And so, fellow Colonist, you thought you were to have it all your own way, did you ? You thought you might call us as many names as you liked, and that no echo of their ugliness would ever find its Way back between Sinclair and Baring Heads. And then, as soon as the first ship that had previously touched at Nelson reaches Wellington, we are a set of ungenerous monsters, and must be put down by a dignified article, showing us what impolitic little boys we are! No, no, fellow Colonist, it won't do. The next time you are looking for naughty boys to whip, don't go so far from home : you'll find ten at Wellington for one at Nelson. Don't birch us because we are a long way off and cannot kick your shins: show a little more sense of justice and impartiality. You remember the motto of the Edinburgh — " Judex damnatur cum nocens absolvitur." Noceits is in Wellington: show him up the next time, and don't force us to say that you are altogether past bearing, which, as 60ine one said, was the reason why Lord Eldon was called an old woman. I am, sir, Yours, &c. June 1. Rusticub.

To the Editor of the Nelson Examiner. Sir — Impressed as you are that you " have no right " to occupy your columns " with any twaddle except your own," I beg respectfully to express some surprise that you should ever descend to reprint from the greatest of all; twaddle-mongers, the New Zealand Journal. It is not, however, my province, cor is it my intention, to dictate to you what ought or ought not to find a place in the Examiner j but, as I last week noticed some observations attributed me and my brother, which convey sentiments -at once inhuman, unmanly, and absurd, I am

sure you will allow me, both for myself and him, wholly to disclaim having been the authors of them. First, my brother is represented as saying that I left England " with a strong feeling of hostility to the natives, whom I considered it would be necessary to exterminate " 1 I will say nothing as to how far I am likely ever to have entertained such feelings, but will refer to those few individuals in this colony who happen to know that brother, and ask them how far it is likely that he would, at one and the same time, have owned me as a brother and attributed such sentiments to me. Ou the other hand, the inhabitants of Nelson are quite able to judge as to whether I am or ever have been so deranged in my intellect as' to talk of the "industry" of the natives "leading to the most happy and encouraging results." With some it may be a matter of surprise, if these statements were never made by my brother, that they should be reported as coming from him. My brother did speak at that meeting. What he said, although not calculated to give an unfavourable idea of New Zealand to any sensible person, was no doubt unfit for the New Zealand Journal. He might have spoken of our delightful climate, of our spots of fertile land, of the peaceable character of the natives ; he, perhaps, pointed out the few individuals who may emigrate to this colony with advantage ; but he did not speak of "extensive fertile plains;" he did not speak of "£2 per acre* as the expense of clearing fern land; he did not say that " wheat scattered on the ground, without having any care bestowed on it, had flourished surprisingly;" he did not say that all parties may come here with "a certainty of success;" in short, he did not say anything that was fit for insertion in a paper which has lowered New Zealand more in the opinion of every man of sense, by the cowardly manner in which it has shunned every correct account of its disadvantages, than all the Australian papers ever did, by the unhandsome manner in which they have exaggerated them ; and hence their reporter has had recourse to his own ideality, and has composed a speech for my brother which he would have been ashamed to utter; generously representing me as a murderer on the one hand, and an idiot on the other. I have to apologise to you and your readers for troubling you with this long spell of egotism, but in this case I think you will admit it was imperatively called for. I am, sir, respectfully yours, Alfred Saunders. Haven Road, June 5.

Loans for Colonies. — When the Income Tax was first proposed, it became a question of general inquiry in moneyed circles, as to how the demand for stock would be met, since that measure was to obviate the necessity of the constant creation of stock, which, during a long previous period, had been resorted to, for the purpose of covering the growing deficiency of the Revenue. The different lines of railroad are completed, and, so far from being a channel for the employment of capital, they are now becoming sources of immense revenue, and the country is so completely intersected by them that it would be impossible to fix upon a new line presenting sufficient chances of a remuneration to induce parties to embark in it. Joint stock banks arc out of favour, there seems no prospect of any of magnitude being for the present established. We may therefore say that no public undertaking in this country is likely to afford employment for the savings of the public, which amount to the sum of ten millions per annum. But a new light is breaking on us. Canada has already got the Government sanction for a loan of £1,500,000. New Zealand and other colonies have applied for the same privilege, on a reduced scale, and an attempt is likely to be mode to direct capital to India, under guarantee of the Home Government, for internal improvement, such as common roads, lands, railroads, and irrigation. This latter improvement would certainly confer an immediate benefit on that vast empire ; but the others are of too precarious a nature, and would be accompanied by so many almost insuperable difficulties, that they can hardly form objects for individual enterprise, but should be undertaken, if at all, by the Government, who might consider the sacrifice of interest amply compensated for by the political advantages they would confer iv concentrating our power ; it is not, therefore, improbable that there may shortly be new channels for other loans besides that of Canada, as the Local Treasury is notoriously at a very low ebb. In all such coses a higher rate of interest than our own stock affords might be expected, which would be eagerly caught at by the public. Here are eventualities; in the meantime investments are being daily made, which keep our funds at their present high standing rate. —From the City Article of the Globe, December 16. Starting Children in thb World. — The following extract from the works of a living writer is replete with sound philosophy and 1 common sense. It is well worth the attention of parents : — "Many an unwise parent labours hard and lives sparingly all his life for the purpose of leaving enough to give his children a start in the world as it is called. Setting a young man afloat with money left him by his relatives, is like tying bladders under the arms of one who cannot swim ! ten .chances to one be will lose his bladders and go to the bottom. Teach him to swim and he will never need the bladders. Give your child v sound education and you have done enough for him. See to it that his morals are pure, his mind cultivated, and his whole nature made subservient to the laws which govern man, and v you have given what will be of more value than the wealth of the Indies. You have given him a start which no misfortune can deprive him of. The earlier you teach him to depend upon his own resources the better." Ta« Decline Superstition.— " When I was young," said. an old Scottish lady, recently, "folk were unco feared at water-deevils, called water-kelpies ; but noo I've lived to see them as dead : and I think, if I were to live anither generation, I might outlive the verra deevil himsel'." — Blackwood.