[From the ‘Wellington Independent,' Feb. 8.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 578, 15 February 1851, Page 3

[From the ‘Wellington Independent,' Feb. 8.]

To the Editor of the ‘lndependent.' Sir, —Before 'I leave the colony I think it my duty publicly to contradict certain calumnies which have been lately circulated with much industry, and which are calculated seriously to injure my character both in an official and private capacity. I allude to the statements and insinuations which have been made to the effect that I have colluded with Mr. Duppa of Nelson to secure him an exorbitant amount of compensation tor his claims on the New Zealand Company, in respect of which I am stated to be personally interested as his partner. This is the shape in whicK the calumny has reached my ears—it probably circulates in various forms, but in whatever form it may appear, I hope the following statement will fully meet it:— * 1. lam no partner of Mr. Duppa. I have no interest whatever, great or small, in any . thing that belongs to him; least of all in his lands, in respect of which I have not, and have never had, nor intended or wished to have, the smallest interest even in the shape of a security- sr otherwise howsoever. It matters not to me m tHe lenst D. owns all New Zealand in fee simple or not a single acre. 2. The only business connexion I have with Mr. Duppa is that he holds some cattle and sheep of mine on common thirding arrangements, precisely I believe as Mr. Cautley holds a large quantity for Mr. Dillon, the Civil Secretary, Mi. M‘Rae for Major Richmond, the Superintendent at Nelson, and some one else for Mr. Domett, the Colonial Secretary of this Province. These arrangements were entered into with the written consent of .my late official superior Colonel Wakefield, and have been sanctioned bv the Court of Directors of the New Zealand Company, under whose notice they were brought by a political opponent of ’ mine. They expire by the original arrangement in April next. 3. The compensation award made in Mr. Duppa’s favour, which is described as exorbitant, was the result of a regular submission to three arbitrators, two of them (Messrs. Sandon and Sclanders) .Nelson laud-purchaseis, the third, (Mr. E. J. Wakefield) a Wellington land-purchaser. With the exception of one point (the rate of interest) everything connected with -Mr. D.’s. claim was left unreservedly to these arbitrators. They might have aw’arded him ten times as much as they did, or / refused him a single acre. In the course of the adjustment of the claims of land-pur-chasers, both under the Agency of my prededecessor and my own, many awards’have been

rnade which we have rega”ded as excessive ; but we have always considered the Company bound in honor to abide by an award once regularly made; and on this account I would not attempt to interfere with Mr. Duppa’s, even if I considered it excessive and saw any ground on which it could be reversed. 4. The only point on which I consider myself responsible in this matter is the having agreed to make it a special case. I may have erred in judgment in doing so, as I may also in the special cases of the Messrs. Deans, Hornbrook, Mrs. Sinclair, Mr. Hay, and a few others, which involved special circumstances, and to which I consider Mr. Duppa’s case is analogous. My' responsibility on this point is to the Court of Directors, whose interests at least I am satisfied I protected by adjusting the claim of a large purchaser, who might otherwise—and I believe would —have resorted to legal remedies and obtained heavy pecuniary compensation from the individual members of the old unchartered Company, and 1 am confident that my conduct in the transaction will meet the approbation of the Court. Your obedient servant, William Fox.