ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 679, 4 February 1852, Page 3

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of the Mew Zealand Spectator. i Wellington. January, 30th, 1852. I Sir, —As Mr. Fox has published a series of untruths about the different settlements in New Zealand and the means of communication between them, in which he includes the vessel now under my command, I beg to be allowed to offer a lew remarks on his unjust and incorrect account of the passage of the Government Brig Victoria, from Nelson to Wellington, when he was on board of her. If Mr. Fox had confined himself to the truth and st ted the whole of the facts connected with that passage, or if lie had even contented himself with publishing his statements in the local papers, the matter might have rested, as it has hitherto done, unheeded by me; —but when he sends them forth to the world in the shape of a book, it is time that the facts of the case should be made known. The Victoria, after having been detained by a foul wind in Nelson Haven 8 hours, was, owing to the skill of vlr. Cross, the pilot, worked out of the harbour by 8 a.m. on the 24tb of May, 1850; nothing after that prevented the i vessel from sailing direct fur Wellington, but the non-arrival of the parties who had been ordered a passage in her, including Mr. and Mrs. Fox, their servant and horse ; so the Brig was obliged to anchor again off the mouth of the harbour although a fair wind was blowing until 2 p.m. The horse (although, as I said before, we had been detained 48 hours by contrary winds) was not brought alongside until 9-3) a.m., when Mr. Fox came off with it, and on his leaving the vessel to return on shore, I heard Captain Pulhatn, who was then Commander of the vessel, request l.im to use all despatch possible, as he was anxious to take advantage of the favourable wind. As it was uncertain the previous night whether the Brig would be able to get out of the harbour by’ reason of the strong S.W. wind which was then blowing, the provisions which Captain Pulham had ordered were requested not to be sent down until that point was decided, and as the vessel left the harbour so early in the morning they had not come down from the town in time to come on board previous to her moving. But I heard the Captain ask Mr. Fox to be kind enough, as he passed the doors of the baker and butcher on his return to town, to request them to send down the various supplies in time to come off with the boat vhich brought himself and the other passengers on board, and Mr. Fox promised to do so. Whether lie kept his promise or not 1 do not know, but the provisions never came on board : on my’ return, however, to Nelson six months after, by direction of Captain Pulham I paid for the whole, and I should imagine, from the sum charged, that more than a sullicient quantity was ordered for the passage. Atl-3<)p.m. Mr. Fox and his party, with two or three other passengers, one of whom had been waiting on the beach since 10 a.m., came on board, and when it was discovered that the provisions had not come off, the captain wns anxious to send a boat on shore for them but was requested by nearly all the passengers not to do so, as the wind then blowing, if it continued, would take the vessel to her destination in a few hours.

With a fresh breeze, then, from S.W. the Victoria got under weigh about 2 o’clock, and at 10 p.m. rounded Stevens’ Island, at the en-

trance of the Straits, having run a distance of f fifty miles with a strong tide against her in K ( hours. The vessel after that was close hauled, the wind being S.S.W., the course S.E. by E. £E.; had there been studding sails onboard v they could not have been set. At 8 a.m. the 0 next morning the Brig was off the Brothers, / where it fell calm, and about 10 a.m. a light wind sprung up from S.E.; the sails were . trimmed and the vessel worked through the * Strait until about 5-3 ) p.m., when she was oft s the Seal Rock. The wind, which to this time < had been blowing a moderate breeze, freshened , very suddenly to a smart gale; the light sails , were taken in, the topsails double reefed, and the ‘ vessel tacked to the westward, heading well up for ! Wellington Head; at 7 pan. it blew such a vio- 1 lent gale, with heavy squalls, thunder and lightning, that the vessel was obliged to be hove-to under a close reefed maintopsail and fore-and-aft canvass. Mr. Fox states the helm was lashed and she drifted through the Straits stern foremost This is a gross falsehood ; during the time I have been in the Brig, now four years and a-balf, the helm has never yet been I lashed at sea, and as for drifting stern fcreI most —any one who has been on board the 1 Victoria, when she is hove-to in a gale of wind, I knows how she forges a-bead, and the little I lee-way she makes in comparison with other ' vessels of her size. On this occasion she was ; wore round three times during the night and the next morning she was off Stevens' Is- . land, and continued in Blind Bay two day s, i when the wind shifted to N. W.; sail was made ' on the vessel and she again reached the Bro- ’ thers when the wind again shifted to S.E., and again we were hove-to for 36 hours. We did ' not reach Wellington until the 30th, having i i been six days and a-half on the passage—du- j ; ring the last four days, owing as 1 have before I stated to the piovisions not having come on board, all the fresh meat, consisting of one sheep and one dozen live pigeons, was eaten, Iso we had to go on the salt pruv sions. They certainly were bad ; still they were the best on board, and there was always on the table a I plumb pudding (not a duff, as Mr. Fox styles ; . it,) or a fruit tart. with wine, cheese, &c. But now comes the best part of the sto- ' ■ ry. There were put on board at Nelson 1 eighteen turkeys for the Lieutenant-Gover-nor, ordered, I believe, for the supper on , the occasion of a Ball given at Government. House in honor of the Queen’s birth- ■ day. These turkeys were put into -the hold, ~ , and when the first gale of wind came on, nearly I one half of them were killed in consequence of I some casks fetching way’ in the hold and crush- ' ing them to death; Mr. Fox also had some turkies on board, but they were put in coops and stowed in ’tween decks, so they were all right; but when it was decided by the Gentlemen in the cabin to have a turkey for dinner, Mr. Fox, although he knew that the Governor’s turkeys had been red.iced to nearly one half their original number, never offered one of his i own birds for the good of all parties who, to use I his own words, were starving, but ordered the ! Steward to be very particular in killing one of j the turkies in the bold. Now putting all these I facts together, especially as the vessel had been : detained six hours solely on account of Mr. Fox and his horse, which six hours, if they had been taken advantage of, could not have failed to to have carried her to her destined port within the twenty-four hours; —taking all these circumstances into consideration, I think you and your readers will agree with me in saying that Mr. Fox’s attack is at once unjust and ungentlemanly. And y et, afterall this, Mr. Fox refused ' to pay his passage money, amountingto between j ten and eleven guineas, without including his ' horse, which, in any other vessel would have ' ! cost him at least £6 more. Altogether the trip in the Government Brig was a good £2 in Mr. Fox’s pocket, be said he would give it to some 1 charitable institution but as I never heard of his ' doing so, and as no notice of its having been so given appeared in any of the public papers, I naturally suppose Mr. Fox very’ coolly pocketed it. With regard to the damage his I horse sustained that was entirely his own fault, I for not having him in a proper box instead of J one big enough for a small elephant. ! With regard to the general equipment of the I Victoria, a reference to her Log Books during > the time she has been on the coast will show I : what condition she has usually been in by the r ! passages she has made, and with regard to her ■ I services I am prepared to show that out of the 1 I nine years she has belonged to the New Zealand s Government nearly seven years have been > spent at sea. At this present time I feel conJ vinced that there is not a vessel, not even ex- > cepting the men-of-war,- visiting this Port that is better found in every requisite than the Vics toria, and she has lately made some of the - quickest passages known b. tween this and the 5 neighbouring Settlements. One assertion more t of Mr. Fox’s I must take notice of before I conclude ; he says no party who has once taken a s passage in the brig would do so again, if he could help it. Why, then, did Mr. Fox take a t passage for himself and Mrs. Fox in her down to r Port Cooper, in Deer. 1850. when many other s vesels were going down there? The Brig was 1 to sail on the 29th of December, the Officers ■ of the New Zealand Company’ were to be dis - missed on the 31st, and Mr. Fox knew, for he 1 gave it me as his only reason for doing so, that I if he did not go previous to that date, he would F have to pay his own passage, whereas if he - went before the 31st hecould charge his passage - to the Company as going on their business, and - add a little more to the enormous sum he had r drawn from them. Thus for the small sum of > £6, Mr. Fox, in a great measure, voluntarily - cancels all he had before stated with regard to I the unfitness of the Government Brig for car--1 rying passengers and her unseaworthiness in - general. i 1 am Sir, I Your obedient Servant, ' P. A. Deck.