TO SAMUEL REVANS, ESQ.,

New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 36, 2 December 1842, Page 2

TO SAMUEL REVANS, ESQ.,

Editor of the New Zealand Gazette. Sir, —In your paper of to-day you have thought fit to attack me in a manner for which my previous knowledge of your character had scarcely prepared me. Into the motives of that attack I do not choose now to enter. You can hardly fail to be aware, that I know, and you must feel that you are indebted to my forbearance, that I do not expose them. I think, however, that I shall be able to prove, so completely as to leave you without excuse, that your assertions are unfounded, and your deductions unwarranted, and with this exposure I shall be satisfied. For this purpose I must state the facts as thev reallv occurred. When Colonel Wake-

field left this place for the Bay of Islands, he delegated to me the powers of Principal Agent of the New Zealand Company. At the time I felt and expressed strong objections to accept the office, from the possible incompatibility of its duties with those which I owed to landowners in England; and it was only on a very strong representation by him of the peculiar circumstances which led him to select me as his representative, that I at length yielded to his request. What were your feelings at the time as to the manner in. which I fulfilled the duties thus imposed upon me, I did not know, and certainly did not trouble myself to enquire. You made no complaint, and never till to-day was I made aware that you were dissatisfied with my proceedings. If the disgust which you now express was previously felt, you have at least the merits of a good memory and great self-command. On the morning of, I believe, the third day of the choice of the town sections, it was discovered that the plan upon which the selection had been made was inaccurate in respect of the two sections No. 486 and No. 485 —tlie former chosen by Dr.. Evans, and the latter by myself. The former section was there made to commence at a very short distance from the brook at Kumu Totp, and to extend about 250 feet in a southerly direction, and the latter to extend from that spot to its present southern boundary, a distance of about 520 feet. The section chosen by Dr. Evans had been so chosen by him on account of its including nearly the whole of the level piece on the southern side of the Kumu Toto brook, and that chosen by myself, on account of its very extensive frontage. To have corrected these according to the field plot would have deprived both Dr. Evans and myself of the peculiar advantages which we had in view in making the selection. Dr. Evans, however, would have been to a certain extent compensated, by having an additional frontage of about 180 feet, hut I, or rather the party whom I represented, should have sustained an uncompensated loss. The mistake was of a character which, apparently, scarcely admitted of correction; and Dr. Evans, who had no idea (any more than the other parties to whom you allude, and who, had they been better informed, might have chosen this section) of the value which the beach [frontage was so soon to acquire, was desirous of throwing up liis choice, and of insisting upon his right to select afresh out of all the sections .subsequently chosen. As it was felt that this would have produced very inconsiderable inconvenience, all parties interested in the choice were anxious to concur in any plan that might be suggested to obviate its necessity; and none more so than the friends of Captain Smith. After much discussion, in which I purposely refrained from taking part, it was proposed, I believe, by Captain Smith, that the northern and southern boundaries of both sections should he continued according to the original survey, hut that the front boundary of each section should he brought down to highwater mark. At this time, Dr. Evans had left the place when the selection was being made, and at the request of the principal landowners and agents, I followed him for the purpose of procuring his assent to the proposed arrangement. In this I succeeded, hut not without considerable difficulty, and chiefly by my re • presentation that I was prepared to make a greater sacrifice than was asked of him, and that his interest, as the largest landholder, in carrying through the selection, was greater than any he could have in this particular choice. At that time I fully believed, as did Dr. Evans himself, that he was making a sacrifice; hut upon reflection, he was willing to submit to the loss whicli he apprehended, rather than oppose any unnecessary difficulty to the progress of the selection. On his return to the room, the arrangement to which I have referred was prepared in form by Captain Smith, and formally acceded to by Dr. Evans and myself; and both sections have since been laid out by Captain Smith in conformity with that arrangement. In support of this statement, I can refer to the original plan, which is doubtless still in existence ; to Captain Smith; to Mr. Park, the town Surveyor; to Dr. Evans ; and to other persons who were present at the time; and who, whatever may have been their subsequent differences with me, are, I am well assured, too honorable to withhold their testimony to the truth of the assertions which I have made. That you, who remember so well your feelings on the occasion, should have forgotten so completely the circumstances by which these feelings were excited, is an apparent anomaly, for which, however, it might be possible to find a solution. The “ most iniquitous act,” therefore, which you charge upon me, is that, in order to save to the New Zealand Company an otherwise inevitable litigation, and to the landowners and agents a prolonged uncertainty of title to some of the most valuable portions of the town, through the error of Captain Smith, I consented, at his request, on the part of an absentee proprietor, to accept 260 feet with a frontage to high water, instead of 520 feet of frontage to the road as laid out! I have not unfreqnently been subjected to charges almost equally frivolous since I have been in this place, hut certainly to none so palpably baseless. Surely you must have access to more accurate sources of infor-

mation than those of which you have now availed yourself —and for the sake of your own credit, it might have been wise to take some means to ascertain the truth of any such charge as that which you have .attempted to foster upon me. I presume that you have some concealed causes for the disgust which you declare yourself to have felt at my conduct as locum tenens of Col. Wakefield. When they are declared, I shall he ready to meet them. They cannot have arisen from my conduct in this respect, even had it been such as you have attempted to represent; because you allege that the transaction, with regard to the section which I chose, was then unknown to you. I neither feel nor express surprise or disgust at your suppressions and misrepresentations. I am contented to state the facts as they occurred, and to leave the public to judge between us. I am, Sir, Your obedient Servant, R. DAVIES HANSON. November 30, 1842.