Original Correspondence.

New Zealander, Volume 4, Issue 228, 5 August 1848, Page 2

Original Correspondence.

To the Editor of thy New Zealander. "" Sin, —Although I have no desire to continue a correspondent c winch hasaheady been carried Itir enough* I must, yet, not be so much wanting in couiteay as to neglect answering your polite enquiry, as to whether I mu an " official late in the tcrvice of the New Zealand Company." I am sotry that your question should call fora reply which may purtnko of the egotistical, and be but littlo appertaining to the subjucc of our controversy. As, however, I never yet wrote a letter anonymously, which I wus not ready to acknowWlge in public, X hebitate not in informing you that I have been in the service of the Company. I have yet to learn that 1 have ought to be ashamed of in having more than nine years since, been appointed by the Company to assist in the exploration of New Zealand, nor do I sec how such u circumstance being adduced can at all assist the aide you have taken in the controversy. .Should it have been with the intention of making it appear that the writer of (he letter was a " Southern Settler" that you hazarded the shrewd gueas, I need but to answer that I am proud of having belonged to a community which has pursued a quiet, but steadfast and consistent couise of politics throughout Us existence ; has nevrr praised wiih " hollow adulation" or been afraid openly and fearlessly to condemn. I am, Sir,

The Writer or the two Letters. [Whatever our opinion of our correspondent's egotism, we doubt we ran entertain but one of his dog-» mati&m. Heaven help the man ! He mu»t be one of "unbounded stomach l'for controversy to conrtrue our brief note into a measure either of attack or defcuce. In the charges prefcired by him against the Warder we read his ownj character, which, meant to convoy a portrait of another is a picture of himself. He exhibits an admirable taste for vituperation, evinced in "a continuous tortent of abuse, directed against the (late) Govcrnor> uriargumcn.ta.Uve although laboriously da-

borntc; fierce but unprincipled." Our "shiewd guess" ai to the identity <>( our correspondent was one ••hazarded" in common with ilio geneinhty of our readers who in Uic personal virulence of the communication combined with its " hollow adulation" co"ld only detect the paitisan or the plncebunter — or both. We have ever carefully distinguished between the Hew Zealand Company and its settlers ; and, a retrospective glance at oui pages will show that we have invariably drawn a broad line of demarcation between the victims and their victimise™. Is our eorreupon. dent answered ? We quarrel with no man's taste : and, indeed, amidst the almost universal denunciation of the Company by tho " Southern Settlers ' it is positively refreshing to find one disinterested clnmpion of its " steadfast and consistent" inkijnhj. Ed.]

To the Editor of the New Zcalander. Sir 1 have seen, with much surprise, a proposition in your paper of Wednesday lant, to get up an address to Capr.Fn/Roy, the late Governor of this Colony, and I have seen with less surprise that the sJnglo-lUaoii War. dcr of this day, giveß an Irish echo to your proposal, hy producing the actunl address. If there are in Auckland men, besides the penny-nn acre, and ten shilling purchasers, who, having 10 largely profited by his folly, to use no harsher word, think a kind word would tie but to Rive the devil his due, who will be found to put their names to f-uth a document, I sincerely hope that his ex-Excolleney will give them the same requital which he vouchsafed to the addiess of the Odd Fellows, who* in the innocence of their heart*, ventured, on his departure, to assure him of their belief in ihe purity of liis motives, and hia intcgiity of purpose. I quote from memory — " lam not aware," «»id the amiable man, in the altitude of his insufferable egotism,—" / am not aware that any one had presumed to question the purity of my intentions." What U the object of this movement Jit the present moment t—Cui bono 1 Why Uit that just now, when two of the local papers are teeming wpeUy with abuse of Captain Grey, and you, Mr Editor, are damning him with faint praise, why is it that you are all become bo suddenly enlightened as to the virtues of Captain Fitzßoy ? Captain Fiußoy, when lie left tliese shores, rolitury in his giandeur— deserted, even at the last hour, by "the only gentleman in the Colony," as he was wont to style a favorite official, was just as nmiable, as honorable, and as high principled as he in at present, and yet eveiy eye was averted, every one shunned the disgraced Governor, except the very Odd Fellows, who wore ro courteously snubbed for their rympnthy, an I fauve before mentioned, liuf, my Lcrd Stanley Iwb " vindicated" him, save the mink. Lord {Stanley who dishonoied hisdraftson the Tieasury, who countenanced to a certain extent, his mischievous land crotchets —who recalled him, mid sent his successor uncourteously, without giving him time to quit the colony before the arrival of that successor. Lord Stanley makes the amende to Captain Filzßoy, or to Captain Fitzlioy's political party, of lauding the moial qualitiea of the ex Governor. You, Mr. Editor, are a stranger to thii colony, I will not, therefore, n^k you why we should adopt your advice, but lather I will tell you why it would be absurd and n stultification of ourselves to do so, and this is my reason :— because, limn the d»y of his anival in this colony, to the hour of Ins suspension from offic* 1 , th<re was not a single public act of any importance executed by him to which any rational and disinterested man can at this day point, and conscientiously cay " it was well done." At his fiist levee he put a and public urult Upon his predecessor in office by declarins; in his pu» srnce that he gre itly admired the wilting of,nnd deiiied nn in'imate acqoaintance with, a gentleman whoso pen was almost exclusively d<dicaed to viiulent and uniclenting abuse of, and who hud, a few evenings befoio, pul'licly superintended the burning of an efligy of that predecessor. Scorning the assistance of all those who from their position, education, talent, and a< qnaintance with the colony, might be supposed capable of giving him the best advice, he listened only to the promptings of his Chief Protector of Aborigines, whose favorite notion was that the Native people could be governsdby moral suuFiqn alone. Under tlm influence, after the first outbreak at the North, and before the rebellion* organization wa» complete, with force at hia hand, and the hour propitious when a blow, well struck, might have crushed the evil spirit for ever, he contented himielf with receiving, in King Cambyses' vein, the homage of the rebellious Chiefs, and immediately sent back to Sydney the troops, of the want of which he has since so constantly complained. Similar fatuity caused the destiuctiou of Kot'ordrika, destroyed the prestige ot the Biitish name, and entailed the waste of blood and treasure, which has been so often deplored. In accordance with his notions of the necessity of what has with singular absurdity been called free trade, that is, abolition of customs' duties, he annihilated the Tcvpnuc of the colony, and continued, in defiance of the law, to support an extravagant government establishment by an enormous over issue of debentures, whereby a loss was caused to the people of this Colony of more than one thud of their property. He permitted and encouraged the alienation by ihe natives of all the •valuable land in this settlement, thus choking up the source of immigration, the land revenue, and saddling the public with a cost of making ro.uk thiough, and inipioving these veiy lands, lrom the disposal oi which the public received no advantage whatever. I Wastcfully, and with scandalous partiality, but as a j recent judicial decision has affirmed legally in right of the prerogative ol the Crown, ho granted by thousands of acres the public lands to individuals, most of whom are mcie speculators, the drones of the colonial hive. . In the Southern division of the Colony his conduct excited in the minds of the settlers the most implacable personal dislike. Yet with all this Captain Fitzltoy may have been an amiable man in piivate life, that is, his character may have been actuated in every act of liis by the purest, ''highest, and most praiseworthy principles." 1 regret, lor his sake, that his method of displaying tlie»c (so admirable) qualities, was so equivocal. Captain Fifzßoy, however, is now a fallen man, and the sympathies of the public, because of that condition, arc tacitly on his side. 1 would venture to lccommcnd, Ivlr. Editor, that the matter be left in slam quo. I greatly fear that it is not in pure tenderness for Captain Fitz Hoy's reputation that the present agitation is begun. It has at the least a suspicious appearance, that your suggestion should be so eagerly adopted by the AngloMauri Warder, a paper which has declared open war against Captain Gicy, and the editor of which believes, with great injustice to himself, that his journal owes its popularity to that opposition. I greatly fear that an address, such as that proposed, is hoped to he made less a weapon of defence to Captain Fitzlloy than of ollbnco t o Captain Grey. Whatever the private virtues ol the former may be, it i» with his public acts that the colonists have to do, mid by his public acts, and their notorious consequences, that he should be judged. Let us have no claptrap, no sentiment ; if it is thought judicious by the people that any put lie testimony shguld buffered.

to dipt. IMzKoy, let it be pei feel ly mulct Mood mul clearly expreiheil tlk.it we make u dislinclion between the public oflncr nnd the puvntc gcntlcitaii ; mid thut whilst we still feel aud deplore the: consequences of his maladministration, wo are willing to believe, upon the testimony of such high authority as Loid Stanley and others, who may be supposed better acquainted than oursekes with the peculiar virtues ol Captain Fittßoy, that he had caused the almost total ruin of his colony with " best and most praiseworthy intentions." I am, Sir, &c,