The Oamaru Mail WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1880.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1319, 17 November 1880, Page 2

The Oamaru Mail WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1880.

Tub Rev. John Foster has defended himself against the indignation which arose out of the publication of his letter to the Spalding Free Press, and its reproduction in a condensed form in the Otago Paijy Times and other papers. If we except a mass of subterfuges and retractions, his or.lv defence is that his letter was mutilated by these who reproduced it. e shall easily disprove of such a transparent falsity. Unfortunately for Mr. Foster—and may we not also say for the (Jolony—both his letter in extenso and the densation are printed in indelible characters. They are available for the purposes of comparison. We have them now before us—the original letter as it appeared in the Spalding paper and the North OtaL'O Times, and the resume of the O rago Daily Times London correspondent.' Had we been led by a misrepresentation of facts by thp Times' contributor into passing unmerited strictures upon Mr. Foster, we could have retired honorably from the attitude which ws have taken up towards the rev. gentleman. But we find that the condensation is more favorable to Mr. Foster than the original document, and that it is obviously his place to retire, We do not ask the public to accept our assurance on this point. Our desire is to beat Mr. Foster fairly, if at all, and not by means of unsubstantiated and unauthoritative assertions such as those upon which that gentleman built the false theories contained in his letter, and now rests his highest hopes of securing " peace with honor." We ask the public to test ths matter crucially, as we have done, for thernsejyes, by careful comparison. Such a course wpujd result in the acquittal of the jcorresponde?it of the Otago Daily Times and the condemnation of Sir. Foster, It is not honorable of Mr. Foster to seek to transfer to the shoulders of an innocent man the obloquy which he has justlyincurred. It is not in accordance with the teaching of any se«t jon of the Christian Church to divert attention from ono's pwn transgressions by pointing to the transr gressions of others. But what can be said of a pillar of the Church who, having sinned, falsely accuses another, with snph an object in view 1 This is not, however, the least unworthy act of the writer. In a most undignified manner, he essays to justify his letter to the Spalding paper by making explanations as to his original intentions that bear distinct superficial evidences of a desire rather to mislead the public than to atone for a wicked act. He says, by way of explanation, that his "letter was never intended for publication in New Zealand, nor a general circulation at Home. Had I intended it to reach emigrants generally, I should not have addressed myself to a local paper in the heart of a rural district." Here appearances are sadly against Mr. Foster. We accept his assurance that liis letter was never in* tended for publication in New Zealand. Mr. Foster is not the only man who has the hardihood to give utterance to slanders, but not the courage to ijtand firm when the light of day is shed upon his insidious operations. He is one of a class who shrink from the ghosts they themselves raise. But when lie endeavors to allay public irritation by pretending that he was so considerate to the Colony and colonists as to select a remote vehicle in which to convey his untruths and misrepresentations to the people of England, he asks us to stretch our credulity beyond its utmost tension. Mr. Foster availed himself of the only English journal that was for a certainty open to him. He had pledged himself to enlighten the people of Spalding through their paper. Tohim Spalding was the world, and even if the columns of the London Times had been open to him, he could not have appreciated tho superiority of the publicity thus afforded him. In this impression he has not been as far wrong as we could desire. The pebble cast into the pool at Spalding has created wavelets which have travelled 33 far as Jersey. There an emigrant had made every preparation to settle in Now Zealand with his family, but, at the last

moment, Mr. Foster's jaundiced statements altered his determination. In commencing his letter to the Spalding paper, the writer says, " I would willingly enter into a newspaper war with anyone who, in the face of the existing state of things, would dare to champion this failing cause, if it would serve the public interest, but I am not anxious to thrust myself into the matter." In fact, "John Foster" issued his ultimatum, which, in his opinion, was so incontrovertible that he did not care to expend pen, ink, paper, and postage stamps in replying to carping critics. The writer has changed his opinions siuce he rushed : bald-headed into the fight against the ungodly trickery of parson immigration agents. His ultimatum notwithstanding, criticism has been evoked in defence of the Colony, and the too hasty, too selfreliant, writer who disparaged the Colony, and reprobated its inhabitants, without knowing anything of either the one or the other, has felt it necessary to trim. He dreaded the contingency of a newspaper controversy because he desired to save "what few shillings" he could "lay aside from paying the exorbitant prices for the necessaries of life " to enable him to plant his feet on the old shore again as soon as possible. He sketched out this programme because his first impressions were unfavorable to the Colony and its people. But now that his experience is more matured, he says, " my friends need not worry themselves that I am secretly plotting to leave them. Where there is work for me to do, and coworkers to assist me, it will be a pleasure for me to toil." It is evident that the scales have fallen from his eye 3, and that he is now realising the fact that things were not so black as he painted them. His determination not to leave us to our fate is not, we have reason to think, attributable to a more exalted estimate of his duties as a minister of the Gospel and political reformer, who, finding . himself decoyed into a "moral wilderness" —a " pandemonium " —valiantly improves the occasion by attempting to convert the vile inhabitants. But, whatever may be his object in deciding to remain with us—whether it be that of the sordid worldling, or that of the Christian emissary and philanthropist—he can no longer fear disI cussion of the subject be has taken up, on the plea that he wishes to put by what few shillings he can spare to enable him to return Home. When he said that, if God permitted, he would confront emigration agents at Home, he, we think, meant nothing more than that he would do it if Mammon were not propitious to him in this Colony. Hi 3 agonising solicitude for the welfare of the people of his native land has been over-ridden by a greater solicitude for the welfare of the people of New Zealand, accelerated by a correct estimate of this Cjolbny aa e, more desirable field in a commercial sense. For) this we do not blame him. If he" was unable to struggle against the numerous adverse circumstances that surrounded him at Home, he has acted wisely in electing to transfer his evangelical labors to the Colony. What we blame him for is that he does not plainly confess the truth, and give us an assurance that he will, now that he has discovered that his letter to the Spalding paper was written under a misconception, write a retractation to the same source. He will surely see that this would be a more honorable course than the defence and apology which appeared in the North Otago Times, which, so far as we know, does not circulateinSpalding. If hedesires to re-instate himself in the good opinions of those whom he may now reckon as his fellow colonists, he will make this amende honorable. We note that he stated in his celebrated tirade that he could not "pretend to order or system" in his remarks ; but he did not say, as, according to hie own showing he ought to have done, that he could not pretend to truth. He wrote from his " fulness"— he docs not say of what, but fulness of ignorance of the subject of which he treated, we apprehend. We do not take exception to his financial statement. Although, as he now discovers, he yelied too implicitly upon Major Atkinson's interested utterances, nobody expects financial statements now-a-days to possess the virtue of accuracy. We can imagine nothing more delightfully confounding than the opinions of a newrchum clergyman on a statement made by the present Colonial Treasurer of New Zealand. But he ruffles our feathers when he calls those abodes of ours for which a rental of 20s a week is paid, " miserable shanties," and adds that we are rated to the amount of 5s in the pound. He, in hi 3 letter to the North Otago Times, admits that he had been as regards the amount of rates at the time he wrote. If he had written to the Spalding paper making such an admission we should have said not another word on the subject. But he entirely passes over the statement that "for a miserable shanty you may pay a rental of LtjQ.'' If thjsi wore tpue, phere is scarcely a man in Oainaru who does not live in a "miserableshanty," whatever that may mean—we suppose that it is an expression peculiar to clerical gentlemen—and what contemptible designation would Mr. Foster apply to the hundreds of homes in Qamaru the rentals of which are only a few shjllingfj a wgelf. Itlr, Foster now knows that this statement, top, wfis a libel on the community. It implied that we lived in misery, if not in squalor. Now that the writer has learned from experience to regard us and everything appertaining to us in a so much more favorable light as fa think us not too bad for evangelisation at his hands, we have a right to request that he shall also announce in Spalding that, in this instance also, be did us an injustice. He says, " what is the use of our abundant corn 1 Labor makes the Iqaf deappf than at Honi6." We reply that our abundant corn sent Ifqfjie and competes successfully there with the corn grown in other countries. In this respect wo arc as well off ag others, and feel grateful to a beneficent Providence for having castourlotinsuchafertileland. It would be sinful to grumble, circumstanced as we are. Again, if "labor makes the loaf dearer than at Home," then, according to Mr. Foster, the Colony requires more labor, whilst he has been endeavoring to frighten it from approaching our shores. Here, sjgain, r. Foster committed a grave ecror, which was Greeted by a too superficial knowledge of the "facts of the case. Should he not write again, stating the truth, now that it has dawned upon him. But Mr. Foster committed the gravest offence when he said, referring tp Qamaru, " What means it that every second tradesman in a town like thig has, in pome shapp op other, made the acquaintance of the Bankruptcy Court of late?" The writer, very pro? perly feeling the necessity for giving some explanation of this extraordinary state- ! ment, has in hjs latter to the North Otago Times —not to the Spalding paper, in which it appeared—writtep. as follows " I confess to an awkwardness in stating what I mean sometimes. , . , My

intention was to state, not that every second tradesman had gone through the Bankruptcy Court, but that directly or indirectly, aa creditor op debtors suph acquaintance had been made.'' \Y e admit the awkwardness, but let us view this explanation in the light, of another statement which was contained jn his letter to the Spalding paper, but of which he makes no mention in his defence. There he said, " What mean the advertisements of the assigned estates and bills of sale, and all the other signs of bastard insolvency.'' Here is thp trqe explanation, He undoubtedly meant ? when he wrote, that if every second tradesman had not filed his schedule, he had made a deed of arrangement, or mortgaged his property, Mr. Foster liad po authority fp r making such a damaging statement, ' He

entered duties as a minister oKtHe Gospel on the 25th April., 1880, and from that date to the Gth of July last, tho date upon which he wrote his'notorious letter, only two tradesmen had actually made the " acquaintance of the Bankruptcy Court" of these made an assignment in favor of his creditors; the other—a bootmaker — filed a declaration of bankruptcy. Would it nor. have been more in accordance with Mr. Foster's professions had he freely confessed that he had been.misled in this matter also, and sought to undo the wrong he had done this community by stating the fact to the Spalding paper ? He dwells in his first letter upon the beauties of Oamaru, but asks, " What is the use of beauty without bread, climate without income, scenery without home comfort 1 ?" Here the inferences are most damning. Has he, now that he has learned that they were uncalled for, taken steps to arrest the evil results of such inferences ? He has not. The value of his references to the " low-toned morality and slip-shod religion " of the people whom he had met can be best answered by a comparison'of the criminal statistics of the Home Country and the Colony. He is not over complimentary to his own country people in his remarks regarding the voyage out. He says, " What a tale I could unfold of the evils, the debaucheries, the blasted lives, and the abject wretchedness of the voyage to many." Where did the people of whom he wrote this hail from ?—from his native land. Moreover, there were no less than four ministers of the Gospel on board. The writer, in his defence, says:— "I shall lose no opportunity of contributing as I am able to the cultivation of a healthy public opinion, a loftier moral tone, a religious sentiment that is neither afraid nor ashamed to deal with present day questions—with the evils that have been too long winked at both in the Church and out of it." We are much obliged to the rev. gentleman ; but let him commence his good work by endeavoring with candour to repair the wrong he has done us.