THE CANTERBURY ASSOCIATION.

New Zealander, Volume 9, Issue 798, 7 December 1853, Page 3

THE CANTERBURY ASSOCIATION.

"Fair play is a jewel" says the proverb; and, —having copied from the 'Australian and New Zealand Gazette two scourging articles on the conduct of this Body, (founded on a pamphlet issued in England by a Committee of Canterbury land purchasers)*—we deem it only fair to apprise our readersthatMr. Henry Sewell has come forward to give an unqualified contradiction to many of the allegations advanced by the writer. The articles were transferred to the columns of our Wellington contemporary, the Independent, as they were to our own ; and Mr. Sewell, "happening to be at Wellington, "wrote a long letter which appears in the number of that Journal of the 19th ult., which reached us by the last mail. So far as that gentleman's counter-assertions can overthrow a number of the charges—advanced in the pamphlet, and re-prod need in the Gazetie y~ltiey certainly must be regarded as overthrown; for he avers and reiterates that '-every statement in the article which tends to impute to himself, or any other of the parlies attacked, charges of wrong dealings in reference to the Association's affairs, is, wholly and in every part, absolutely without the slightest foundation,—is utterly and must be wilfully, untrue." This animated style of contradiction is maintained, and rather increases than lessens in vigour, throughout the long letter. The principal charges which Mr. Sew ell specially denounces as " utterly, untrue,"or"slan-derous-libels,"are,—that a leading member of the Association caused items of commission to be placed to a wrong account in order to conceal their amount;—that the Association received so much as 47,611/, for Ecclesiastical and Educational purposes, and did not account for the money received for those purposes;—that Mr. Godley supplanted Captain Thomas in order to replace him by Mr. Brittan, and created around himself a body of useless dependents, and famished no "detailed accounts;-that Mr. Brittan and Mr. Bowen unfairly obtained the most valuable wood in the colony ; that the Canterbury Papers were concocted by Captain Simeon and Mr. Alston; that Mr. Bowler received the high commission slated; that Mr. E. G. Wakefield for weeks together did what heliked with the monies, &c. of the Association ; and that the loss upon Emigration exceeded 50,000£.

Indeed, Mr. Sewell is chivalrous enough in his championship of the Body of which he was Deputy Chairman, lo declare his "confidence that in due time the Association will vindicate itself not merely from these miserable calumnies, but even from the suggested imputation of unwise management as regards the investments of their Ecclesiastical and Educational endowments."

We should be sincerely glad to find it proved,— in such a manner as would exclude, for the future, mere assertion on either side —that an Association with which were connected names of high influence in the Church as well as the Stale, was not fairly exposed to the grave imputations which have been cast upon it from many quarters. We must wait, however, till the "due time" for satisfactory revelations on the part of the Committee shall have arrived, and can only regret that, like the "good time" of the song, it is so long "coming." The publication of the articles in question, in a metropolitan journal extensively circulated and wholly devoted to colonial matters—(in addition" to the more limited circulation which the land purchasers pamphlet mightobtain)— may perhaps hasten its advent; for every '•our that the Committee permitted statements so definitely made by a Committee of of their own land purchasers, and involving barges of such reckless misconduct, to regain unrefuted. their character must sink more and more rapidly in public estimation. Having copied the articles, however, we deem J! only just to notice the fact that Mr. 11. Se weli has contradicted them in terms so explicit as to shut the reader up to the contusion that there is great misrepresentation °a one side or the other.

t Death of tbbj Celebrated Chief " HookNose. "—[t is with regret that we announe the death of Tc Taniwha, or Te Iloreha, —more generally and familiarly known trj Europeans as " Hook-Nose,"—the eelebrated Chief of the Ngaliwhanaunga, which look place at Coroniandel on the 21st of Nov. He had lived, however, beyond the ordinary term alloted to man's existence, having been, according to his own statement, n't least twelve years old when Captain Cook visited New Zealand,—an occurrence respecting which his memory was clear, and in a variety of points circumstantial, as Avas evidenced by the interesting narrative supplied by Mr. Ligar, which appeared in our columns some months since under the title of "A Surviving New Zealand Chief's Reminiscences of Captain Cook's Visit," and has since been extensively copied both in Colonial and English journals. His venerable age gave him an influence with the Natives tar exceeding any that bis rank as Chief alone would have conferred; and this influence was exercised to the utmost to promote confidence and friendly relations between the Pakehas and the Maories. A remarkable instance of this, too recent to be forgotten, occurred on the occasion of the meeting between the Natives and Lieutenant-Governor Wynyard, the Bishop of New Zealand, and Chief Justice Martin, in November, 1852, at the newly discovered Gold Field at Coroniandel, when llook-Nose was chosen to introduce the subject, on behalf of the Native Chiefs, and manifested a sagacity, an eloquence in expression, and a cordiality of feeling towards the Europeans while no doubt contributed largely to the amicable adjustment of the questions then discussed. Indeed, on every opportunity, as well as on that, he showed a willingness to extend to the settlers all the protection and assistance his circumstances permitted him to offer, and this disposition rendered him universally popular with the Europeans, which his bravery in war and his wisdom and eloquence in Native debates—together with his venerable old age - -caused him to be looked

j up to with peculiar reverence by his own people. We learn that, though he had long | lived in heathenism, he latterly showed a soi lieitude to receive instruction in Christianity, and that a few weeks helore his death he was j baptized by the Rev. Mr. Lanfear, Church : Missionary at the Thames.