THE COLONIST. NELSON, TUESDAY, JUNE 28, 1859.

Colonist, Volume II, Issue 176, 28 June 1859, Page 2

THE COLONIST. NELSON, TUESDAY, JUNE 28, 1859.

We have to cul! particular attention to a letter signed John Sharp, but without any address. A. reference to the Electoral 801 l enables us to recognise the author, whom we should take to be the present Clerk to the Resident Magistrate, Registrar to the Supreme Court, Kegistratiou Officer for the Town and Waimea Districts, Clerk to the District Judge, one of the Auditors of tke Nelson. Trust Fuuds, Returning Officer,

Registrar of Intestate Estates, one of the Auditors of the Proyincial Accounts, and member of ■ the' Provincial Council of Nelson. i From a gentleman possessing so many^apI poiritraents, we should not have expected to be iiirnisljed with a sentence which so aptly de-. rscribes his own position as the writer of such a letter. He concludes, "By making this remark, the truth of which is generally admitted, that any cause that requires the support of personal abuse and insinuation is deficient in sound argument on its side."

In our last issue we published a letter from " A Nelson Citizen," upon the two sites pro,-, posed at Wakapuaka for. the formation of a cemetery ; and as we make it a rule never to publish a letter containing personal abuse, unless, like Mr. Sharp's, directed against ourselves, it was carefully read before published. We appeal to tlie public if one offensive word is there written; and as "insinuations" are made, we beg distinctly to state that the .writer of that letter has not the slighte.-t connection with this journal, and wrote the same withou* -any knowledge on the part of Mr. Wilkie, name bas been so unnecessarily dragged 'before the public, and did it, a voluntary act, for We benefit of the town and province.- This is- the only answer we will condescend to give Mr. Plurality Sharp for his inuendoes.

From the fact that this journal has. been assiduously supported by Mr. * Wilkie, the Cemetery question has been avoided in those columns wherein our own opinion of public matters is expressed. A feeling exactly the" contrary lo that which Mr. SnARP-imputes has led to a delicacy of advocating that which, under Existing circumstances, is the best way of getting out of the.evil which has befel us. . We do not ■agree with our correspondent, the ".Nelson Citizen," that the Port site would not be suitable; his argument about the winding road on the beach, &c, could be answered by one ithrovigh Washington Valley. It now, however, is too late to.wish an alteration there. The iland refused by Crown Commissioner Richmond to two applicants, now both living and in this province, oh the ground that, being reserved for a cemetery, he could not alienato it from the original purpose, was legally (!) sold by the same Crown Commissioner Richmond to Major Richmond, Commissioner of Crown Lands. This former patron of Mr. Sharp's did bis work effectually, and no longer needs the ready pen of Mr. S. That which was sold for fortyjtwo pounds must now be replaced at a large cost, and we do wonder that there are no more than two offers of land. We should have ex. pected the holder of every impracticable and useless, section to be advocating the peculiar advantages of his. Plans of catacombs, essays upon peculiar modes of sepulture, &c, &c, might have been expected.

It seems sorely to grieve our correspondent that any question should be raised about the eligibility of that section he takes so great an interest in; and we must confess he causes us no little amusement by the very lucid way in which he calls us to order for venturing to ■i prejudge any question, or influence any opinion before such question has gone to issue." What, in the name of common sense, does he imagine to be the duties of a journal, if not to examine into the various schemes proposed for the public benefit. His legal knowledge has made him confound a publio question with a criminal case, in which we quite agree that where guilt is the theme, and the accused on his trial before a jury bound lo form a verdict on evidence alone, all such matters should be left untouched by the journalist; but upon matters of such things as roads, cemeteries, we claim that the fullest and freest discussion be allowed. By another letter published to-day, signed " Forget me not," another site is advocated, and one which will no doubt find many supporters. Are we exclude such a letter beoause, forsooth, a Mr. Sharp should think it injured his friends? He will have to add another to his various offices, and be made the Censor of the Press. We are accused of bad taste in allowing the publication of our. previous letter, and well does that come from so excellent a judge of good and bad taste as the proposer of a motion, hurried on with indecent haste, to. separate two offices, that of the Commissioner of Crown Lands and that of Provincial Secretary.

If there be one member in the Council from whom such a motion could have come more ungracefully than another, it was the holder of the various offices enumerated above. He might surely allow one gentleman, of known and acknowledged ability, to be supposed capable of doing,the work of two, when he claims to himself such a- universal competency.