New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK’S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, December 3, 1851.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 661, 3 December 1851, Page 2

New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK’S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, December 3, 1851.

The last number of the Lyttelton Times received contains a letter from Mr. Godiey, in reply to some remarks in the Spectator, ° n his appointment of Captain Parsons #! Harbour Master of Lyttelton. Mr Go having ever complained of Govern-

went for neglect in not appointing a Harbour Master, and states he has always been of opinion that the expcnce of the appointment “ might have been saved by the proclamation of the Harbour regulations, giving to some other Government Officer the necessary powers to deal with the shipping in harbour,’’ but finding the meeting of a contrary opinion he did not hesitate to sign the memorial. But we must remind Mr. Godley that the memorial was in effect a complaint of neglect on the part. of Government, and seems to have been viewed as such in the following rebuke conveyed to him in the official reply:—

“ His Excellency thinks it right io remind you, as your name stands at the head of the memorial, that had he followed the dictates of his own judgment alone, he would have made such an anpomtment the moment the settlement was established, but that you, as the agent of the Canterbury Association, expressed yourself so strongly against the propriety or necessity of Government, from the peculiarly delicate positio'trifrwtiich it was placed in fhl 6 w? C i e tQtha j A ?j° Clat * on > hesitated to oppose the wishes so decidedly stated of their agent upon this subject. ’ and if he thought the appointment superfluous, “from his peculiarly delicate position’ ’ as Agent of the Canterbury Association and Resident Magistrate, he should have declined placing his name at the head of the remonstrants, and imputing it as a fault to the Government that it had complied with his urgent representations.

Mr. Godley states the Meeting was held on the 4th July, and that he forwarded the resolution praying for the appointment of a Harbour Master on the same day, and labours to prove he could have no idea of appointing Captain Parsons to that office, as the news of the Lady Nugent having been chartered by the Association was received at Lyttelton in August. Whatever foundation there may be for the report to which we alluded, it is sufficient to state that our remarks had especial reference to the correspondence published in the Lyttelton Times of October 18, between the Local Government and Mr. Godley, in which Mr. Godley’s letter to the Colonial Secretary forwarding the memorial is dated September: the Lady Nugent arrived at Lyttelton Sept. 18th. Of course Mr. Godley’s organ considers the Spectator a malignant in listening for a moment to any rumour that “the Canterbury settlers are not over phased with the appointment of a stranger to the post of harbour master there, but as that paper has always been loud in its complaints on behalf of the Canterbury settlers when any appointment there has been conferred by Government on a person from another settlement, although in the routine of official succession, if it had any consistency.it could be at no loss to discover a very good.reason why the appointment of a stranger by Mr. Godley should not, on the same grounds, be very popular there. ' ‘ ’