Correspondence.

Colonist, Volume III, Issue 220, 29 November 1859, Page 3

Correspondence.

To the Editor of the Colonist,

Sir.-—ln your issue of the 22nd November you have given space to a letter signed by a '.Wairau Elector,' as it contains a covert attack upon the new capital, Picton; will you permit me to make a few observations upon it. > In the very beginning appears what might be called an anomaly; we are informed that the electors are not repentant, but are very anxious to prevent the promoters of the matter being able to "foist themselves into positions." I cannotof course know who is the author of the epistle, but should fancy that it came from an inhabitant of Beaverton. The'letter is dated " Mailborough " and contains a direct falsehood when it says there is no difference of opinion here, every one allowing that Waitohi is a very unfit place for the seat of Government; it contains another when it says, there is no jealousy or rivalry between Beaverton and Picton. . I, sir, have visited both, have resided and been in business for months in one of these two mentioned towns and fearlessly contradict a statement so " inaccurate upon matters of fact." The inhabitants of the Beaver are as jealous and I may add, as fearful of the Waitohi as any speculators can be; they have bought a portion of that at times impassable swamp, which degrades the name of town by having the right to be called one, and they have grown so accustomed to the frequent delay of their vessels by sticking on the mud flats, such as they can admit over the Wairau bar,that theyaccept as a necessity to commerce the greatest drawbacks to it. A passenger myself in one of the trips of the Tasmanian Maid, I can say that she struck ground 20 times in leaving the harbor, and discovered amongst other curiosities, a new rock in the fairway of the channel. Witty facts like these staring them in the face, the Beavers still seek to throw the dust of their Wairau plain into the eyes of those who conceive that a harbor navigable for any ships, and nearer to the Wairau plain is superior to their surf-ridden boulder bank. We know that from Massacre Hill and consequently from the almost entire district of the Wairau, Picton is nearer than the boulder bank, and though there is an ascent in the twelve miles of road it nowhere rises to 280 feet, a gradient which even a railway engineer would laugh at. Your correspondent talks about the Waitohi crochet, did it never strike him as much more crochetty to lay out a town in a place named from its peculiarities after an amphibious animal. Had there not been some very unpatriotic land speculations fostered there, who would have dreamt of such a site? situated at the very extremity of river navigation, and for four months at least in the year unapproachable through the surrounding morass. Will the inhabitants of the Beaver dare to join in a request to the officers of the Niger expected here that they should examine the natural capabilities of each position and report upon them ? I think not. Can they write home to any shipbroker and request him to lay on a vessel for pas■eugersto the port (Heaven save the mark) of Beaver? again I say no. I have already tresspassed upon your space sufficiently, but cannot conclude without offering on the part of the inhabitants of Picton, to the Beavers a shelter and home when the next flood washes them out of their huts. lam sir, Yours, &c,

ANOTHER WAIRAU ELECTOR.