ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. To the Editor of the New Zealander.

New Zealander, Volume 8, Issue 676, 6 October 1852, Page 2

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. To the Editor of the New Zealander.

Sin, — I thought I had done with Mr. William Brown, when he shrunk from all public defence of his conduct in reference to my land claim. But it appears that having been baffled in his attempt to quietly appropriate my land, he must seize upon every opportunity to sneer at mo. A simple report of my proceedings at the last land sale could not be given by the honest Mr. Brown in the Southern Cross without his taking occasion to have a fling at my case, as his agent had before, when he termed my claim a "pretended claim." And now in his paper of to-day he snarls at ** Adam Chishohn" in a puny effort to divert attention from the unanswerable charges brought against him by some honest correspondent in a letter which I was glad to see in your last paper, but of which I knew nothing till I saw it in print. Is this the way in which a man, conscious of his integrity, would meet another's accusation ? My case has been brought to the bar of public opinion. " A.dam Chisholm" has not been afraid to bring his deeds to the light — while William Brown has found it convenient to shrink from a public explanation of his conduct in relation to my land claim, which justice demanded, and in lieu thereof has commenced against me a series of the small, paltry tokens of his revenge, which his paper has been made the means of levelling at any who have happened to earn hi& hostility, or to merely differ from him on trifling matters. However, Sir, I beg to offer, through your columns, my warmest thanks to the public who were present at the Government Land Sale the other clay, for their willing acquiescence in my request to abstain from bidding for land that I claim, and which I still hope to be put in possession of by the justice of the British Government. How very favourably the conduct of the gentlemen present at that sale, some of whom no doubt had never heard of the nature of my case before, contrasts with that of those who were the cause of my land being brought into the market, although they were right well aware of my equitable title to it. I confess that I entertained no fear of any honest colonist interfering at the sale to prejudice my case while pending, but lest that any should do so in ignorance, or that the other parties who were anxious for the land should, after the sale was over, privately offer to buy it at the upset price, I deemed it a prudent step to present my protest — not out of any disrespect to the present Governor who has treated me with the civility which every subject of Her Majesty should receive, but which seldom falls to their lot from some people in power under her. I wrote to His Excellency the week before the sale, requesting him to defer offering my land for sale until an answer were received from the Secretary of State to an appeal which I was preparing to forward. His Excellency replied that " under the circumstances of the case" he could not now help putting the land up for sale, but, although I did not ask the question, he very kindly offered to forward to Her Majesty's Government any appeal or statement I had to make on the subject of the land in dispute. Every body almost now approves of the course I took, and I have the satisfaction to know that it is coming to be well understood also that my charge against Mr. Brown was not without foundation — for had he not been interested in the sale of my land he -would not have allowed me to be jeered at in his paper for taking a course which he recommended others to take before me. When he did so it is true he had an interest the other way. We all remember how he abused Mr.Wm. Forsyth for buying land belonging to a claimant of his own acquaintance at Onehunga. I know very well that the Government could not "under the circumstances" help offering my land for sale. As I stated before a lease of the land was applied for by Mr. Brown's ngent, and it was surveyed at his request, but when he found he could only buy it under the regulations which required that it should be offered for sale at public auction, he did not appear to fancy that side of the bargain. lam well aware that my exposure of the case some time ago saved my land from his grasp, for I am told, and he knows it is true, that when he was informed the land was surveyed and ready to be offered for purchase, his reply was — "Oh, I must wait a little, I cannot buy it just now, after Chisholm making all that fuss about it in the New Zea lander.'* After the sale I was further assui*ed of this by a party, a friend of his own, who came to me to say he had no wish to buy my land now, that I might keep myself easy. But since that I have liad further reason to know that his heart is still set on my property, so that I have sufficient grounds to call upon him in this public way, not to i How any selfish consideration to induce him to offer to purchase, or to allow anyone belonging to him (o offer to purchase on his behalf, that land of mine at Papakura, until my appeal is decided on. I have those connected with me at home who have been long looking for the settlement of my claim, that the hopes which I held out to them, many a year ago when I bought it, may be realized, of settling down with me in a country which I looked upon at that time as the one that was to be my own future home and theirs also, — I remain' Sir, yours, very thankfully, Adam Chisholm. Auckland, October 5, 1852.