ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE

Southland Times, Issue 1194, 16 July 1869, Page 2

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE

WE DO HOT IDENTIFY OURSELVES IN ANY WAY WITH THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED BY OUB COBBESPONDENTB. »

(TO THE EDITOB OF THE 80UTHIiA.NI> TIMES.) Wellington, June 26th, 1869. Sia — "Will you oblige me by copying into your paper a letter Bent by me this day for publication in the ' Southland News.' — I am, Sir, your's truly, Donald Hankxktson.

(to the editoe of the southland news.) Wellington, June 26th. Sib — The mail from the south has just furnished me with a copy of your paper o£ the 12th, containing a report, or what is styled a " fair reflex "of what took place on the occasion of my meeting the electors of Biverton. As I was, unfortunately, unable to give sufficient notice to enable many who are living at a distance to be present, and whose presence I should have very much valued, I think it due to them, and to myself, to ask them to receive from me, instead of from an incompetent and unfairly biassed reporter, an outline, as brief as I can make it, of the substance of what I said on that occasion ; and for convenience will put it in the form of a report.

After having referred to the present crippled condition of the colony, its indebtedness, and the immediate prospect of being called upon to make still further , exertions to provide for the expenses of a war which promised to last some time, before we could hope for a lasting peace ; he, nevertheless, still urged the necessity of earnestly setting ourselves to carry out the self-reliance policy, and proceeded to sketch out what he conceived to be the present political position of the colony, expressing a wish, that in times like these, when New Zealand required the best efforts of her best men, there might have been an end, for the time at least, to party strife, and some chance of even such able adversaries a3 Fox and Stafford consenting to unite for the pur" pose of carrying out some scheme which should meet with something like general support throughout the country. He then spoke of Sir G-eorge Grey's second administration, of the wasteful and unwise expenditure of the £3,000,000 loan, and could see no escape from still further indebtedness, since it appeared hopeless to expect any assistance from the Home Government. In proof of this, he proceeded to point ouifc the tenor of the Imperial policy towards us, as very clearly indicated in the despatches from the Colonial Office to our different G-overnors from 1840 until the present time. He, therefore, while admitting that self-reliance had been prematurely forced upon us by the action of the Imperial G-overnment, strongly advocated it, as the only true and manly policy for the country to pursue. He deprecated asking for assistance which would never be granted* and showed how impossible Mr Weld found it, with a divided responsibility j and ajbitter misunderstanding between General Cameron and Sir George Grey as to the employment of the troops, to carry the war to a successful issue. He had no command over the Imperial force, and the British soldier could not be got to the front. (This was misunderstood by one or two present, who thought that he was questioning the bravery of the English forces.) In reply to a question, he refused to pledge himself to any thing, but to judge and vote as best he could for the public weal. He believed that Weld's policy faithfully carried out, would have pulled, and will still pull us through our difficulties ; but, for the sake of a promised saving of £240,000, he had to give place to Stafford, and the force of 1,500 armed constabulary, the very key note of the policy, was not raised; the outbreak came upon us unprepared, and we had to go into the streets of Melbourne and Wellington, to pick up anything we could find, and it certainly did seem to him that the material was not first-class ; they were then immediately packed off to the iront, where, after a course of discipline and training, it was to be hoped they might yet do good service to the colony. With such a force of raw levies in the field, Mr Stafford and Fox united last session in passing a resolution to retain the 18tU Royal Irish, lest its removal in" war time should have a bad moral effect on the Maori mind. He believed that with a well trained, well officered band 1 of from 1000 to 2000, the neck of the rebellion could be broken, and the Maoris taught to respect us, which they never would do if we were always looking abroad for the help we should seek to supply at home. In reply to questions, he placed very little reliance on the report of Mr Hichmond's speech, and of the reliability of newspaper reports generally. [And, Sir, I may be allowed, parenthetically, to appeal to the very curious report of which I am now complaining as sufficient proof of what I said.] He expi'essed confidence in the Stafford Ministry and policy as a whole. He was what w»s called a Centralist, and believed in local selfgovernment, under a system of Road Boards, having entire control over their share of their land fund, with County Boards, or Councils to supervise, them and look after the main roads. He disapproved of violent changes of any kind, but could not vote for what is called Provincialism, feeling as he did that it was a system nearly out, indeed in some provinces completely worked out. It was well known that some of the provinces were in such a condition as to require the immediate interposition of the General Government. Nor could he support re-annexation to Otago, or separation of the two islands. He looked upon Mr M'Lean as a very experienced aud most valuable man, and his dismissal by the Government as unavoidable in the face of his having refused to carry out their instructions. Then after a motion regarding re-annexation to Otago, from which he strongly dissented, had been put and carried, the meeting broke up with a vote of thanks for which he felt duly grateful. I am, Sir, yours, &c, Donald Hankdtson. {"Tliis letter was refused publication in the 'Southland News.'— Ed. S. T.]