To the Editor of the New Zealand Spectator. Wellington, March 9th, 1853.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 794, 12 March 1853, Page 2

To the Editor of the New Zealand Spectator. Wellington, March 9th, 1853.

Sir, — When Metoikos " threw down hit glove in the lists," after btving through the medium of the Southern Cross in the North, and the Independent in the South, accused Sir George Grey of inveracity, and asserted that be was not to be believed, was tbis doughty champion of defenceless Maori widows, and land jobbing Missionaries actuated solely by the desire of exposing frand and eliciting truth t or did gome secret feeling of priTate pique for supposed neglect, —of fancied personal affront to the self love and vanity of Metoikos prompt him to deface and spoil so much clean paper 1 Metoikos, in his own opinion, may be ft very •honest man, and may believe he is acting with the best intentions; bat Pandemonium, a place of notoriously bad repute, is said to be paved with good intentions, and it becomes rather questionable whether the motive which actuates Metoikos, or rather his calcoethcs scribendi, is quite as virtuons as be would fain make the world believe. To say the lesst, Metoikos lays himself open to the charge of inconsistency in his present anti-Go-vernor crnsade. Five years ago he certainly had no very great objection even to Sir George Grey's despatches, and three or four times a week could manage to keep his bile in a sufficiently quiescent state to admit of his sating as many dinners at Government House; and as he did not find much fault in those days with the dinners or the wine, but swallowed a very respectable share of each ; so, in those days, at any rate, be did not complain very loudly of the " wilful misrepresentations" contained in Sir George Grey's despatches, which it is to be supposed he saw at that time — if they are really there —just as well as he sees them now; unless, iudeed, the lack of the good cheer of Government Honse, having lightened his stomsch, has sharpened his perception. About this time however, —that is, not quite five years ago, —Metoikos met with something at Government House which disagreed with him altogether, and stirred up an immense quantity of bile, which he partially succeeded in getting rid of by charging his quondam host in the Anglo Maori Wardtr with duplicity and falsehood, affecting at the same time to have made such discoveries of the Governor's public character as obliged him (Metoikos), from his very high sense of honor and great regard for truth, to cut his old friend. Unfortunately a story got wind that Metoikos, having diligently eaten some three hundred of Sir George Grey's dinner*, and drank some twenty dozen of his wine, fancied he had established a fair claim on the Governor's patronage, and sighed for a pleasant retirement on the banks of the Waikato, as Inspector of Police at £200 a year, where he could indulge in bis. philanthropy for the Maojies —religiouiljr uphold. the terms of the Treaty of W«n«fljg|N|k* another Cito, improve the atorfjity of tbt natives by his example, - And sit attentive to his own applause. It seems, howeter, Sir George Grey did not form so high an estimate of the merits of Me* toikos as he himself did, and the latter, disappointed in his expectations of a place under Government—feeling the door was now shut to him —forthwith joined that distinguished luminary the Southern Cross t and shortly afterwards took his departure for the Islands. Thither we need not follow him: —suffice it to say that whatever he might have done for the Waikato natives with a salary of £200 a year, it is generally believed the morals of the wahines of the Feejee Islands did not improve under the teaching of this modern Cato the Censor. Metoikos mnst feel wounded in the tenderest point; —h'.s vanity and self love mnst be deeply mortified to find his long letters fall still bora from the press. Very few ever read them, and if by chance they provoke a passing notice, it ia only an expression of contempt for the writer of them, since they clearly show by what motives he is actuated. I am Sir, Tour obedient Servant, OUTIS.