THE LATE COLONEL FADDY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4904, 9 December 1876, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE LATE COLONEL FADDY.

SO TEE KDITOB Olf THIS NKW ZEALAJJP TIMES. Sir,—With regard to two letters which appwred in your paper of the 28th ulhmo headed "The Children of the Late Colonel Faddy." These letters are so full of inaccuracies that I beg you you will allow me some space in your paper to point them out, otherwis9 the public will have but a onesided and very crooked view of the matter, lo commence, the late colonel, with hur two boys, arrived in Auckland in January, 1876. After Btaying a few days in Auckland, he left in the Pretty Jane direct for Napier, where he arrived on the 27th. On the 28th, Mr. Scully, Commissioner of Police, Napier, on behalf of Colonel Whitmore, called on Mrs. Palm, and osked her if she would tako the Colonel an.l Ms boyß to board and lodge them, and what would be her charge. She replied that her present lodgers were paying her 355. per week each; but after some further conversation with him, and- after his distinctly assuring her that whatever trouble and expense she might be put to on their behalf she would be amply remunerated, she consented to take them for £1 per week. The Colonel and his two boys consequently arrived that same day, "halfstarved and wretched," as described by Dr. Spencer in his letter, and without a penny in the world. However, after the assurances she (Mrs. Palin) had received from Mr. Scully that she would be amply remunerated for any expenses she might be put on his behalf, she paid for the cab that brought them to the door, for the washing and getting up of their board-ship clothes, for the repairing of the rags that were then on his children, cown to their very shoes (which were completely worn out), in order to make them presentable at her table; never for one moment imagining, nay, never conceiving it possible, judging from the only experience she bad had; viz. (gentlemen who had boarded with her), that any man, far less a soldier and a statesman, would ever attempt to repudiate bo just and equitable a claim, or saddle his own just burden on a poor woman who had as much as she could possibly do, by hard work and long hours, to keep herself and family in a state of independence. But what was the case? When Mrs. Palin sent in the bill, which amounted to somewhere about £4, Colonel Whitmore returned it, saying he could not acknowledge it, and that the Commissioner of Police had his instructions regarding Colonel Paddy's board, from which he would not vary. TJpon receipt of this, Mrs. Palin •wrote for a personal interview with Colonel Whitmore, but her request was not granted, She then wrote to the Commissioner (this was either a week or a fortnight after the Colonel first came to her house, I think the former,) asking him, as he brought him there, to at once remove him, as she could not afford to keep him and pay all incidental expenses for £2 per week ; and, moreover, unless he were removed at once, she would charge from the beginning of the next week £3 3s. instead of £2. The Commissioner answers this letter on the 12th of Pebruary by saying that "he is under no arrangements relative to Colonel Faddy, with the exception of £2 per week for his board and lodging, but that ho would write to Colonel Whitmore." She repeats her request both by personal interview and letters, giving still stronger reasons for her requiring his removal, viz., that she was losing her servant, and beginning to lose her lodgers, on account of his eccentric conduct ; and that she herself was perfectly worn out with waiting upon him. On the 17th February, in answer to repeated requests, he sends another letter, in which he states " that it rests with yourself whether you keep him in the house or not, that Colonel Whitmore will only be responsible for •his keep for another week from to-morrow, mak-" Ing four weeks altogether;" and added, " perhaps it would be as well if you would keep him for that period, and then have done with him." She (Mrs. Palin) see 3 him (the Commissioner) again, and tells him that It is impossible for her as a woman to turn him out of her house; that he brought him there, and that it is his place to take him away; and begs and entreats him so to do. The only satisfaction, however, she gets is this: the Commissioner tells her she had better put his things into the street, and shut her doors and windows upon him. The consequence is that the end of the four weeks for which Colonel Whitmore said he would be responsible comes, and Mrs. Palin is paid £8 by the Commissioner for their board and lodging ; but before she receives it is compelled to sign a receipt in full of all. demands; and the Colonel and his twosons are left at hei house, the Colonel in a dying state. From thi3 time until two days before his death he remained at Mrs. Palin's, actually dying, perfectly helpless, having to be washed, dressed, and attended upon, in every respect like a baby, night and day, not a soul going near him save Mrs. Palin herself; having to be fed on the best of nourishment, jellies, blancmanges, &c, together with wine, brandy, and other necessaries for a dying man, all of which were supplied to him with a liberal and unsparing hancC though by one who could least afford it. Mrs. Palin did certainly ask Colonel Whitmore to allow him medical comforts, but .fhis he refused to do. Two days before he , died a ticket for his admission to the hospital was procured, chiefly through the instrumentality of Mrs. Palin herself, and not, as would be inferred from Dr. Spencer's letter, solely through his own. .Mrs. Palin being perfectly knocked up in attending upon him, found she would have to relinquish her means of getting her own livelihood, unless someone would share along with her the duty and expense of nursing this poor old man in his dying days; and as there was no single soul who would, she bestirred herself to get him admitted into the hospital, and succeeded in so doing two days before he' died. He died, Colonel Whitmore standing beside him, he happening to come in just at the time the old man breathed his last. Colonel Whitmore was asked to advance the necessary expense (£6) for a cpffin, but this he refused, unless Mr. Raven, the officer in charge of the hospital, guaranteed the amount. He was ordered a pauper's funeral, but Mrs. Palin declared he should not have one, and went herself to Mr. Lascelles, the solicitor, when a stir was made, and then " We buried him as a soldier, the Napier Artillery Volunteers, under Lieutenant Routledge, following him to the grave, the coffin being carried on a guncarriage, and several of our citizens attending." Mrs. Palin asked for a suit each for the two children, to go to their father's funeral, but was refused, and then she herself started a subscription, by which she wan enabled to procure for them the necessary clothing, and thus •'we subscribed enough to make.the funeral in all respects befitting the unquestionable military distinction of the officer who was gone." With regard to the opinion expressed by Dr. Spencer, that, "dying as he did, friendless and penniless, in the public hospital, he waß of course only entitled to the funeral of a pauper, I would Dot attempt to deny that such is the opinion of the doctor, since he has expressed it in print, but I deny most emphatically that such an opinion with regard to so distinguished a soldier, and one who has Berved his Queen and his country with so much bravery and gallantry as the lato Colonel had, would for one moment be entertained by the majority of intelligent minds, or properhearted humanity. With regard to the concluding remarks of Colonel Whitmore's letter, in which he states that " Mrs. Palin, to the regret of everybody who knows her, has chosen to carry off and to prevent going,, both of them, to the Auckland training ship, to which the Hon. G. McLean had ordered their admission," I deny, equally emphatically, that this is either accurate or truthful. If he had said to the regret of nobody who knows ber, except perhaps such large-hearted men as those who would consider that Colonel Faddy was entitled to ; nothing better than'a pauper's funeral ; or those noble-minded ones who would. not scruple to saddle on the hard-working, hftrd-stnvibg widow burdens .and expenses which never should be hem, he would undoubtedly have been a great deal nearer the truth. fhe fact «,, the matter is simply this: the L eut-Colonel, when dying, consigned his two children to the care of Mrs. Palin, begging her not to part with them, and therefore, when she heard that admission to the Auckland training ship was about to be .procured for them, ehe naturally.

inquired what sort of a place this training ship was, and was told, on what she considered competent authority, that the ship or school was principally for criminal children, or the children of convicted parents, and that most children, before being admitted, had to be committed by the police. She then thought, and most properly too, that such a school was no fit place for the children of so distinguished an officer, and felt that no woman with a true motherly heart could, under the circumstances, quietly relinquish them to such a place. With regard to what Dr. Spencer says, viz., that the late Colonel l<addy died "not of a broken heart, but of senile debility and bronchitis," I will not attempt to deny that he died of senile debility and bronchitis ; but I still hold, and shall continue to do so, that the term " broken heart as contained in the paragraph to wmen probablythedoctorrefera.wasneitherinaccura t nor untrue, as she who nursed him can very well bear out; and further, I believe there is ample evidence, not only from the assurances of the late Colonel and from the simple statements of the children, but from an expression contained in a letter from the General (his father) to the late Colonel, between whom theie was great estrangement, in winch the word "appointment" is made use of-which letter I have not by me, neither have I the means of i procuring, or probably it would settle that question atonce-to show that some ment was promised by Colonel Whitmore to the late Colonel Faddy, and that the breaking of that promise --very much accelerated and helped on his death. In conclusson, I would respectfully suggest to Dr Spencer that in future, before he accuses a public institution like the N. Z. Times (for he has done so by implication) of inserting " sensational bits of gossip," that he himself should learn to write of facts impartially and correctly, and not inaccurately and onesided, as he has done.—l am, &c, Once Moeb. WAR SERVICES OP THE LATE COL. VAVm. Colonel Faddy commanded the Eoyal Artillery in the engagement at Port Natal, against the revolted Zoolu chief Foro, in 1846. He served in the Kaffir war of 1852, in command of the Royal Artillery, and was named in the official despatches, especially in that relating to the capture of the Kaffir chief Macomo s stronghold, called "Macomo's Den," on the 10th March. Also commanded the Royal Artillery at the battle of Berea against the Basuta tribes, under the chief Moshesh (horse shot), 20th December, 1852, and was again mentioned in despatches, and received the brevet rank of major for his services (medal). Commanded, as brigadier, the column detached from the Sangor Field Force, which defeated the rebel force at Kentee, in Bundlecund, 4th j March, 1859. Mentioned .in despatches. (Medal.) .