The New-Zealander. SATURDAY, JANUARY 15, 1848.

New Zealander, Volume 3, Issue 170, 15 January 1848, Page 2

The New-Zealander. SATURDAY, JANUARY 15, 1848.

Be just and fear not : Let all the ends thou aims't at, be thy Country's, Thy God's, and Truth's.

"PLAIN FACTS Relating to the War in the Northern District/ Is the title of a pamphlet which has been now some time before the public, and from an earlier notice of which we have been precluded by particular circumstances. Professedly this little work is a defence of the Venerable Archdeacon Henry Williams, against certain charges of disaffection and disloyalty said to have been publicly made against him for his conduct during the late war in the northern district ; but in reality it is a political pamphlet, got up as part of the machinery by which public opinion was hoped to be influenced in the all-absorbing question of the Land Claims ; and also in i

furtherance of an object which certain parties here have proposed to themselves, and to do them justice have pursued with great determination, steadfastness, and talent. — that of throwing obloquy on Governor Grey, distorting his actions, misinterpreting his molives, derogating from his merit, and embarrassing as much as in them lies his administration. The few threads supplied by the Archdeacon have been woven in the loom of the Southern Cross, by the ingenuity of his I Auckland Editor, and with his own additions, into a fabric of which " plain facts," are but the very small pattern upon a fancy ground. The charges complained of by Archdeacon Williams, were first made we believe, after the sacking of Kororarika, and by an individual of whom, as he has since gallantly expatiated his errors there, and is now happily beyond the reach of censure or of praise, it will be enough to say that his zeal sometimes outran his discretion, and that at the time, suffering as he did under the painful consciousness of failure and mismanagement, he perhaps availed himself of the consolation to which in most cases of misfortune, our human nature resorts, that of finding somebody to blame, and fixed upon Mr. Williams as the object of his indignation. Did any individual except one, or perhaps two, whose reputations were affected by the disastrous occurrences of the 11th March, say or pretend to think, that the venerable Archdeacon was a traitor, or that he was in league with the savages, whose hands were red with blood, whose camp was full of the plunder of the sacked town ? Not one.— No one seriously believed, that Mr. W. t an English gentleman, a Minister of religion, the father of a family, a man of long tried and well established character, could so be guilty,— and we cannot avoid expressing our surprise that in his present relation to the government, as a dissatisfied and soi-disant injured land claimant, he should have unearthed this absurd report to parade it as a grievance. The gallant Colonel Despard in his snappish, querulous way, appears to complain of an incommunicative disposition on the part of Mr. Williams, and of his disinclination to furnish information which he, the Colonel desired to possess, but which he, Mr. W., could by no possibility attain ; but we should be glad to know of whom or of what that pleasant gentleman did not complain. Walker, who saved his, Col. Despard's reputation was an " incurabrance " worse. No body could tell him how many natives were hidden underground, or what was contained in a pah without seeing it. His new projectile *• bottled powder " failed, and the Colonel's gall was poured upon all alike ; it was no grievance peculiar to Mr. Williams that he was insulted by Col. Despard. A paragraph from our journal of January 31, on the subject of the treasonable correspondence said to have been discovered in the Ruapekapeka after its capture is copied into the pamphlet. The general excitement here during the operations at the north was very great, reports of every kind were rife, some true, some utterly extravagant and absurd, amongst other rumours it was said, that several letters of doubtful import implicating parties of station in the colony were discovered, and thereupon appeared a Government proclamation, declaring that all this correspondence had been destroyed unread. Here was food enough for suspicion. The paragraph complained of is general in its reprehension, and is but a reflection of the public feeling at the moment, and makes no , individual accusations whatever. Yet Mr. Williams thinks it necessary to furnish us with a copy of a letter of his to Kawiti, picked up in the pah. We are not, and perhaps we ought to confess it with shame, learned in native language. The hidden meaning of I Maorie expression is as obscure to us, as its most obvious interpretation $ yet we have been assured by those who are capable of giving a correct opinion, that some portion of this letter carries a double meaning, which would mislead, at the first glance, an indifferent scholar. And if Mr. Williams has chosen to use expressions in his communications with a rebel chief, which admitted of a wrong construction, he has himself to blame, and not those who in the hurry and heat of action discover and denounce a document, containing words of doubtful import, the true meaning of which is apparent only upon consideration, and to a Maorie scholar. Men with arms in their hands are seldom critical philologists. These then are the grievances round which this pamphlet has been spun j first, a charge of disloyalty which no one entertained seriously for a moment ; secondly, some qerulousness on the part of Colonel Despard ; and thirdly, a paragraph in this journal wherein no particular allegations were made, and which was probably forgotten as soon as read, the fate of most newspaper articles. The real grievance is however, as we have said, the Land question. The reputation of Archdeacon Williams,«and of his brethren of the Mission, has never been impeached, — their land titles are now in peril. It is nearly two years since the charges complained of were first made, they were but very little thought

of at the time, and have been long forgotten, but writs of scire facias have been threatened, and are now we understand, issued, or about to be issued, to test the validity of certain grants of land said to have been illegally made. As this is a question on which the highest tribunal in the land will have to give its decision, we shall not follow the example of others in prejudging it. We shall say nothing of the policy or impolicy of reopening the question of these titles by the Government, but this we will say, that we are sorry to see Archdeacon Williams or any minister of religion lend his name and his influence to the turbulent and pernicious agitation which has been got up on this subject ; which has deprived the claimants by its violence and intemperance of the sympathy of the well disposed portion of the community, and which has done and continues to do irreparable mischief, not only to the particular interest concerned, but to the whole of the settlements. Archdeacon Williams, as well as the other land claimants, may well exclaim, " save me from my friends.'*