Correspondence.

Colonist, Volume III, Issue 295, 17 August 1860, Page 2

Correspondence.

lo the Editor of the Colonist. Sir—l have refrained from indulging my scribbling propensity on the present state of public affairs, not from a want of subject matter to dilate upon. Neither should I have now broken eilence were it not that I think, not only yourself but your contemporary, aye called upon to exercise a little discrimination in your apparent desire to cater for the morbid cravings of the public, for what some are pleased to term news from the seat of war. So, taking the elaborately minute diaries of thef several correspondents, it would seem that as regards the Nelson people that they thought they could not be too minute or too vague in what they are pleased to forward for our special information,: I allude more particularly to the article from the Omata Stockade, of the 4th of August, the writer of which seems to have studied how best to combine the solemn and the ludicrous, by first describing the funeral obsequies of an unfortunate victim, and in the next the ludicrous ebullitions of a son of the. Emerald Isle, as to the probability of another on the other side. It should further be borne in mind that persons deeply interested in the consequences of passing events cannot be expected to take a very dispassionate view of things as they really are, their pens are the representatives of their fears and wishes, and as such a?e likely to lead those at a distance to form very erroneous conclusions, and : thereby not duly to lessen the effect of such, hut by mis-directing their endeavours to alleviate matters, help to-make them worse than they-other- : wise turn out. .'.-.. ■ There is an old saying which we constantly see corres 2, • ' ■ verified not only, in the domestic nursery but in the Government nurseries. Some people whip their children till they cry and then whip them ! for crying, which the present proceedings of our Government, in my opinion, very much resembles. And judging from ihe late exhibition in the General Assembly, the twenty years' residence of the white people in these islands seems to have left them as ignorant of the native customs and their rights, privileges, and immunities, guaranteed to them by treaty, as when they first came among them, and more so than the natives are of our administration of justice, which, when properly explained to them, they have invariably submitted to. I see great stress laid by some members, of the General Assembly upon the total absence of all iJeas of right or wrony amongst the natives, but * that of the strongest. It is a failing of the great mass of mankind," I know, to judge, of others by themselves. The maxim that " might is right," is as old as creation, and even at the present day in civilized Europe would. appear to be a ruling maxim. Itappeavsfi'omthedebatethatHonorablonaembei'3

themselves, and those who" have the credit of beiriy he best informed in the native language, differ '5 roni each other as to the correct interpretation or the idiomatic language of the natives; and under "such circumstances, who .can say that the Native Commissioner and the Native Interpreter may not he equally at fault; aye, and with all due respect to his high station, may not his Excellency have pinned his faith upon the wrong sleeve? As regards the Venerable Archdeacon, having always considered him &3 the sole cause of the first disagreement between the natives and the white people,, in the line of conduct he pursued, under the directions of his then patrons (the Church Missionary Society) to estrange the natives from the settlers, in the present case as far as I cansee, judging by the tenor of the debate, and his explanatory letter in the Southern Cross of the 7*h of August, I must say the blame on the present occasion does not rest with him. If the result of his present dilemma and interference in public affairs of a temporal character should induce not only himself, but the whole clerical hierarchy of these islands to confine themselves to their especial spiritual vocation, the better it will be for the community they reside among, as it would be assuming too miicb/ to suppose that seeing there is so little agreement among themselves upon matters which they think themselves specially endowed to preside over, that they are therefore the better qualified to decide or to advise upon the temporal affairs of a community with which they profess not to, meddle, the better in my opinion it will be for all parties. So saying, N ■ -.' ; .. . I remain, &ci, , : SENEX ALBUS. . To the Editor of the Colonist. Sir—Will you oblige the, undersigned by publishing, for the information of the Provincial Government, that we, in [ commoti with others, shall most gladly giveVofur qiiota^ towards the erection of buildings for the Taranaki refugees. -" " ' ■••■ George Morley, senior George Morley, junior Wesley Jackson . (Carpenters and. Builders.) Nelson, August 16.