ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 690, 13 March 1852, Page 3

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of the New Zealand Spectator. Wellington, March 10th, 1852. Sir, — The Wellington Independent of to-day’s issue contains a. positive contradiction to some of the wilful mis-statements made by Mr. Fox in reference to the pensioner villages in the neighbourhood of Auckland. At the same time that Mr. Fox acted as the New Zealand Company’s Principal Agent, with a salary of £lOOO per annum, he was likewise the acknowledged editor of the Independent, when he opposed in the most virulent and unscrupulous manner Sir George Grey’s administration; that paper still adopts the same tone, and at times is filled with encomiums on Mr. Fox’s conduct; it is, therefore, with no small degree of surprise one finds the present editor, Dr. Featherston, one of Mr. Fox's toadies, admitting into that paper a statement which so completely convicts Mr. Fox of a gross untruth. The statement in question is made by one jcalled by the Independent “our correspondent,” and is as follows: — * The appearance of the country is at this time exceedingly beautiful. Last week I visited llowick, the most distant of the pensioner villages. The appearance of the village is most striking; every acre is almost in cultivation ; wheat, oats, potat-. es, and other productions, all in separate acres; the varying shades of yellow and green gave the settlement quite the appearance of a tartan plaid. A good many of the pensioners have bought the five acres to which they have the right of pre-emption. One of them told me that he would this year have 100 bushels of oats, and 30 or4uof wheat. He has got four cows and twice that number of young cattle, and other things in proportion, and his is no solitary case.” Now what a contrast this description presents to that given by Mr Fox wherein he says, “ I found the largest of these villages (Howick) located fifteen miles from Auckland, on a bare and poor soil, without a stick of firewood within many miles;” and further he asserts, that “ reports of actual starvation among tie inhabitants of llowick were circulated in the Auckland papers.” The fact is the statement from the Independent goes towards substantiating what has already been said with regard to Mr. Fox's book, that nearly every page of it contains either inaccuracies, gross exaggerations, or wilful mis-statements. I am, Sir, Your obedient servant. Detector.