Correspondence.

Colonist, Volume II, Issue 121, 17 December 1858, Page 2

Correspondence.

To the Editor of the Colonist. Sir,—A stranger reading your contemporary's Col ling wood correspondence, dated December '■ 2nd, would--naturally suppose that the Nelson Examiner wasthe patron paper of the diggings, and the editor of it the particular advocate of the diggers. The Colonist, on the other hand, seems to be, according to this correspondent, its determined enemy, and bent on, crushing (not quiirtz) but diggings and diggers. I will, • Sir, with youv permission, see how far truth will carry out your contemporary's correspondent in his denunciations. He states that the diggings are still in existence; the fact of which we shall soon have ocular demonstration •• —(pity he could not bring everything else he states ■ to- the same test.) Now, Sir, Ido not recollect ever reading anything in the Colonist which tended to throw disci-edit on the diggings. It. was the Examiner, if I mistake not, who, endeavoring to carry out the very selfish views and ends of several of our would-be lead- • ing men, tried to make it appear the diggings were a failure, so far as individual labor was concerned, and advocated the leasing of miles of the diggings for a number of years*— ; a thing which they were war carrying, and are still striving'to carry. What think you was their policy in feasting Messrs. Stafford and-Rich-mond? Not for what-good either had done for the colouy, for no one mentioned anything of the kind, for the best of all possible reasons —ihere was nothing of that sort to mention.' No ; it was for what they expecst to get. Your contemporary's correspondent seems to stand ib ■ fjreat frar lest, he should be accused of telling an untruth. I would advise him to keep so (it;' shews a wholesome state of mind), as falsifiers-" are seldom paid much attention to. I was very" = glad to see a reference made to one of,the Exa? . miners Collingwood correspondents, as to the ' ' untruth of the statement made by him respecting the flow of emigration to the diggings at the rate of 900 per month. He, of December 2nd, states that everybody (in' the district, I suppose) admits it to be incorrect. Well done, Collingwood correspondent—a very neat word for a deliberate falsehood (of course not his.) But his mental vision must be...very much clouded when he makes a wonder of the Qolonist taking it up so sharply, as he jays it is supposed to be written by a pet icorrespondeut of that paper,—a cause of wonderment, = certainly. As to that correspondent not knowing anything about the Company's proceedings at the Pakawau coal mines, I believe; the public would (eel much obliged to any correspondent who would give a truthful account of them; It appears the Examiner's correspondent informs its editor that he (the editor) is occasionally guilty of joining the Colonist in crying down the diggings by stating they are only available durii'g six months in the year, on account of the floods. He admits part of the statement to be correct. The rivers, he says, are hot easily worked duriug the winter months; but states that there are hundreds of acres in the Quartz Ranges which can be easily worked in the winter at a profit. As to the threat of your contemporary's correspondent being obliged to say " some disagreeable things which may be called slang," I'would advise him, as a friend, to write what he in his own mind considers just, whether they are disagreeable or not; and likewise I beg to inform him that slang is only used when men are at a loss for argument, and consequently be^in to bully. Having noticed most of the remarks of your contemporary's Collingwood correspondent of December 2nd, I will, with your permission, take a cursory view of the one who dates bis ~ correspondence December: 3rd. After giving ," us some very valuable local news as to-the1 weather —which will be more appreciated, I have no doubt, by the diggers and storekeepers in that locality than by us, although "ye require it as much as them—he dashes-at once-to the . abuse of the Colonist and its editors. It is a «ood job they are invulnerable, and always have been, to the mosquito bites of Collingwocd correspondents, as well as others. As., to the- ■ falsehood of an old grind in running down the diggings, it appears to me the statement- is madeby an interested Collingwood correspond ■ dent for the purpose of lessening the popularity of the Colonist at the diggings, and to diminish, if possible, the respect for the Superintendent the diggers have invariably entertained for him* and which is not likely to be transferred to those who would monopolise the diggings-to-. themselves by getting mining leases of miles in extent for a number of years; nor is at all likely ;> they will patronise a paper which will.advocate,^ such things. Ido not recollect any bUckguartkki;jft

ing on th£ part of the Colonist, nor any lack of reply to any sensible letter from the diggings. Bficember 3rd correspondent of the Nelson Examiner thinks it strange, that a newspaper, recognised as the organ of the working man's Superintendent, should speak the truth about the&ninerul wealth of- the colony, so far as it lm been developed up to the present time. Where is it-? >-Whei?e<is:the-.coal for the working of which so much land has been leased to a Company by Government these many years—a Company comprising the leading men of the colony, aye, and wealthy ones too—where is their public spirit and energy ? Nowhere. But instead of which we have a feeble moan in the Nelson Examiner, in the shape of a gentle hint to''the present Executive, to bring forward a measure to assist in developing the mineral resonrces of the colony, vow the steamers have made this their port of entry and departure. Again, as to diggers being drunkards and disorderlies : Who was incessantly harping for eoersion at the diggings, for troops, for a Police Magistrate and constables, and neither last nor least, for,, gold licenses? Who advocated all Ibis? Why, the Nelson Examiner and your ■w-'iild.-be rulers. When December 3rd likes to write again, I think, Sir, you may promise him »n answer. Hoping he will get one, I beg to . Yours, &c, A. B.

Nelson, December 10,

To the Editor of the Colonist.

'Sn^—Win you allow me, as a resideut here and interested in the well-doing of all public undertakings which are calculated to improve our provincial success, to offer a few remarks upon the report of a meeting which was held at the Od.l Fellows' Hall, on Tuesday the 7th. It is a matter of much importance to many of us, that the stigma inferred by Mr. Wrey as being 0 ist upon us by the directors of the Dun Mountain Copper Company should be cleat ed up, and we should have some more valuable data fchau Mr. Wrey's assertion that there is such asiigma imputed/ The meeting was' undoubtedly a packed one, and from an assemblage met, not so xnuch with a view to elicit truth as to uphold -one whom they delight to honor, it is not improbable that imputations might be cast upon any who may differ from their peculiar mode of explaining facts. Let me begin by dissecting 'the assertions of -the promoter of the meeting. With a curious arabig\iity of expression he •speaks of a report furnished by the committee to the Daily News. As the committee is resident here, and the report furnished by the •directors, I am at some loss to know what report can "be referred to. Mr. Wrey speaks of six years of his life sacrificed to the Dun Mountain. Are you aware. Sir, that that gentleman •received a salary of £500 a year for some considerable period, and a present of 2500 shares <iii the Company, valued at £2500; a sacrifice 1 would willingly accept for six years' service. The report spoken.of by him as being received ?by chance, he himself, after a few sentences, acknowledges to have received from a member of the committee. Mr. Wrey seems astonished that it should contain extracts from Mr. Hackett's report from the mine itself; I should con•ceive the directors could furnish no more -valuable information in any report they might issue •to the general shareholders. This report, ■dated the 17th of the month, is for the purpose -of'putting shareholders in possession of necessary information previous to a meeting on the 30;h. This very report begins by giving Mr.-Wrey's ■own communications, and concludes by quoting Mr. Hackett's, thus affording a!l interested with the moans of comparison. Mr. W. says, that •the " most serious charge was that the sped nieus sent home had never come from the mine at all." Will Mr. Wrey tell us which passage of the report states this ? He is fortunate in Txiirig able to flatter the Nelsonians by stating th;it lie can contradict what never existed. I ■will now proceed to explain that which Mr. Wrey did not, viz., the meaning of the quotation made by him, that, " since the unsatisfactory ••accounts had been received, they hadn't sold a •single share." It is this, Sir, that the directors, •who might be accused of having trafficed in ■shares owing to their earlier information, •through the chairman, in his speech, used those words. Who in his senses would have bought ? And the directors wished only to prove that they hud not used their private information to sell. That a director after six years without returns might use the word "moonshine" is just possible, nay very probable, and a speculation ■of Mr. Hackett's as to the resemblance of the Dun Mountain district to a country in which, ■quicksilver might be found, has enabled the speaker of the evening to fetch a laugh by a .'joke of 16,000 miles in distance. This is followed by the matter of the evening, an explanation as to what he himself had done, and his astonishment at finding that others had carried it on in his absence. After alluding to the domestic relations of the secretary and directors, he proceeds to quote his final report; and there -it was stated that in Wind Trap or Shareholder Trap Gully, nvu lodes of copper to the extent, as lie supposes, of 20. If once visible they should -surely be so now, and unless s'rata of impure green-stone be the lodes in question, they have 'vanished. Were the copper so abundant that at could be mined by long poles, we should have seen ere this more than two tons. The little, however, has now been covered up, and the Dun Mountain refuses to shew in any of her 20 lodes any more. Were the lodes continuous, 1 should have thought that the greater tUe fall of superincumbent or surrounding matter the larger would have been ■the quantity of ore exposed. After another witticism, in which 'he gives the meesing to expect that miners should be wealthy when waiting for employment, he proceeds to give the opiuions of the " needy," who soon agree with the shareholders that they are working "'the wrong way." That which follows is a kind of •general doubt of the ability of Australian civil •engineers, and reports of analysis of what was found, and finislies with Mr Wrey's' determination to publish a book. I wish, Sir, you •could prevail upon him to alter his resolution, for I remember a saying, "Oh that mine ■epemy would write a book. 7'

The next gentleman who spoke at length was Mr. Travers, and he appears to have taken a most just and sensible turn. Had Mr. Wrey adopted the same tone^—pleaded his own ignorance of mineral matters, and expressed only a * general desire to assist in the promoting any •work which could conduce to the benefit of Nelson—he would have done better. T ; o Mr. Travers nothing can be said in dispraise; and I only regret that he should have wasted so much tlme ; in prospecting himself, and turning «icerone to others, who* led by him, have paid their money. That any words in England casting a reproach on those who have liberally mppiied their means and services, I must much iqim, for it oaaoot bt just, and did they

know more in England they would say less. A Mr. Creasy, smarting under the result of eighteen months' neglect on his own part of applying for the certificate of his shiires, gives us his opinion, for which the meeting, I aui sure, must have been grateful. The last speaker, Mr. Duppa, appears to have, stent forward with £50 at the eleventh hour, with a promise of three shares for ea'-h sove reign advanced ; and at the meeting he staed that it was to test the value of the enterprise and to enable him to represent to his friends in England the real value of Ihe mine. H>w many shareholders that gentleman bus procured, I, o course, am n>t in a po.-ition to 'know; but it would be interesting to all to hear how much influence he posse-sod in raising the sluu-e list. The usual stereotyped motion was then pu! from the chair, proposed and seconded hy iwu NON-shareholders, and the frs ivities of the eveu'ng seem to have terminated.

Really, Sir, this seems a very unfair way of costing an imputation upon an absent gentleman, whose course I should myself have adopted, for I should not consider a public meeting, advertised for the attendance of interested and non-in-terested, was the bar to which I should plead against an accu^aiion. That there may be a sore point which induces Mr. Wrey to thus come forward,1 of more vital interest than the report of the directors, is possible. He may have land, bought with a view of hereafter selling to the Company during his management. Directors of the Eastern Counties Kail way in England have done such things, and human nature is fallible. If, hojvever, I can call a> tention to this matter more fully, and the mountain itself be more thoroughly and properly worked, I shall not have called attention in vain. I will not apologise for trespassing ou your columns, as I feel that the more enquiry is made, the more, beneficial will it be to all concerned ; and I give Mr. Wrey the'credit for having been the first to enable us to judge of the real merits of the case.

I am, Sir, &c, MINERALOGUS

To the Editor of the Colonist. Sin, —Your contemporary in his remarks upo:: the late grand political banquet;, siys, " the fact is, that the after-dinner state is one peculiarly favorable to free discussion and gooJlinavmred -forbearance." This is certainly a new feature in the case, as a friend of mine would have said had he been here. "The variety of sul je.ct> touched upon (like Humphrey Nixon's dissertation 'de rebus omnibus cum multis aliis'J, prevents any from becoming tedious." Here again Punch's query furcs itself upon one's notice. It is the first time I ever heard it gravely contended, more particularly by one who professes to write advisedly, that utter-dinner speeches were to brf t ike a as the deliberate expressions of the real opinions, and more particularly the political sentiments, of the speakers on tln-se occasions, let the subject under discussion be what it may. On the contrary, whatever sounds escape between the imbibaiiona of the generous gooseberry, have always, as far as my experience goes, been considered " Vox et prceleria nihil." I recollect in my younger days some of your fast, ossy young gents, after dismounting at the cover side, and comparing the relative merits of their blacking and tons, have recourse to a small pocket, pistol in order to screw their courage up for th-; corning events of the day. And I have known: many a would-be-thought great politician draw very liberally 'upon his Mend and pitcher to enable him to disemburden himself of those portentous considerations, the want of the expounding of which sufficiently, in his opinion, account f>r the confused state of the political wo.rld, but more particularly that small handful of the population of it which he presides ove:. |He then goes on to say, " the interval between the toasts allows to everyone an opportunity for criticism, and for communicating his own views and impressions to his next neighbor," &c. But he goes on to say, " he who so fir misunderstands the real scope and purpose of the meeting as to differ with set speakeis for the occasion, is by common consent voted an ill conditioned fellow, and one who interferes with our enjoyments, and spoils our digestion." And all th^fc forsooth is what he calls the best opportunity of ascertaining the direction of public opinion. Woe be to that ill-conditioned cub who should on such occasion venture to express a doubt as to the correctness, or the wisdom, or. the truth of half that is so vehemently expressed, and for this reason that is generally below criticism, all which declamation on his part put 3me in mind of the couplet written on two of the greatest statesmen of their day, and whose political roguery has never been surpassed— 1 ' Fill a bumper cries Pitt to his colleague Dundas, As ifc all one hundred years hence is,

.And a drunkard may w<?ll for a Solomon pass,

When a nation is out of its censes."

Seriously speaking, I am surprised at your contemporary j-ettling down seriously to panegyrise the after-dinner speeches of public men, who, be it remembered, to satisfy the vanity of some of our would-be thought leading men, are called upon, nilly willy, to exhibit themselves at the town hall mahogany, and to heir themselves bespattered with the fulsome flattery of their audience, and in return expected to discharge an indiscriminate round of soft sawder among the admiring and self-satisfied elite of Nelson. Were I to recapitulate some among the numerous instances in which really great public me;; have given unmistakeable proofs of when " the wine is in, the wit is out," gentlemen would not be so ready to put their political idols upon pedestals, where, having first demented them selves, they become the laughing-stock of the sober portion of the community. It is such melancholy exhibitions as these that verify the following distich:—

" So fiv.il the judges who our merits scan, The greatest, fool oft seems the greatest man." No, Sir, there is hardly an individual, from the Chairman down; to the croupier, who does no!, on such -occasions " carry two faces under his huod, 5' and dues not excuse himself the'next day to the first greenhorn who takes everything he lieaTS or reads literally, by saying, " oh, you know one haidiy knows what be says on such occasions." As regards the remaining portion of his leader, I shall take another opportunity, perhaps, of discussing the various subjects there treated on, till when, . I remain, yours, . .

SENEX ALBUS

THE AUSTRALIAN MAIL SERVICE. We have received by the last mail a prospectus of a proposed new company, the object of which is to provide steam transit via the Isthmus of Panama, hetvveen Great Britain and British Columbia and Australia. The project, which must altogether depend for its realization upon securing a subsidy, appears to be quite in an embryo state. The Australian Royal Mail Company is just dragging out its existence in order to sell the last of its boats, after a career, of loss, failure and disgrace.— Sydney -Herald, November 26th,