THE COLONIST. NELSON, TUESDAY, AUGUST 28, 1860.

Colonist, Volume III, Issue 298, 28 August 1860, Page 2

THE COLONIST. NELSON, TUESDAY, AUGUST 28, 1860.

We regume our remarks upon the proceedings of the General Assembly with the speech of the Colonial Treasurer and Minister of Native affairs upon his motion for leave to bring in his Native Offenders' Bill. The honorable gentleman is represented as expressing his surprise that his: colleagues and himself have;.been allowed to have all the say to themselves upon the debate on the address to his gracious non-entity speech; and it would appear that the honorable member was carried off his legs by two contending forces operating upon his seven senses at the same time: the one the. exultationiin supposing that the opponents ofthe Government yese, dumbfoundered by the statesmanlike diplomacy of himself and his colleagues dfsplayed by their mouthpiece, the Governor; and the other by the self-complacency with, which he flattered himself that they were to have it all their own way for the rest ofthe session. The honorable gentleman would do well to recollect the caution given to some too sanguine individuals,' hot to cry before they were out of the wood.' He may perhaps find that what he takes for disappointment, and irritation on the part of certain members, may turn out in the sequel.not only a wise.but a generous forbearance on.their part towards a government whose conduct on a particular line of policy they were by no means parties to, or up to the time he was taunting them, or in any way answerable for the consequences of. '". #~.' He says that he would ' take the earliest opportunity of stating in what way ministers proposed to state their views, &c., upOn the whole question,' which, as he very justijr observes, was * far too much for a single statement,' &c. Surely the honorable member must have been completely intoxicated with his fancied escape from all opposition to expect that honorable members were so shortsighted as to launch out in unmeaning invectives upon a subject of the merits of whioh they, were totally ignorant. In the very next- sentence he proposes to divide the discussion into four distinct heads,, and these again .to subdivide; and yet he expected honorable members to digest them all over a dish of gossip a ministerial reunion. -He then tells the house 'there are two things' to be considered about the. present war.—'- its justice and its policy.'. < The question of policy,^ he says, very innocently, >we supposed would have been debated upon the address in reply to his Excellency's opening speech! which; however, to his agreeable surprise, was: voted nem. con.! Wonderfully obtuse must have been the intellect of the opposition members not to be able to see through' the Colonial Treasurer's milestone; for he- says we intended by the address to put in issue the policy of the war;.taking of course, as it was decorous and in every way right, to do, the 'basis of the-Governor's facts!' . 0 ' Indeed! The Governor's facts ! Why, as wie have observed before, there was not a fact set forth in the whole speech. If the honorable gentleman had begun his oration hy a, p'etitio principii,A\ia,i,t\ie house should take it fbr granted that the asseverations put into the opening speech would be substantiated by evidence which, they had been told; should be laid before them, we do not see what would have been gained, ja^ a I week's war of words; and consequently we J again say that we cannot conceive; upon what foundation he so exultingly flatters himself that it will be all plajn sailing forhimself and colleagues through the session. Again, notwithstanding, his- self-compla-cency, he admits that -«_ much seemed open to fair discussion^ many doubts and objections might naturally present themselves to members who had not fiilly,given their minds to the question.' Surely with' .this admission it would have been more states-, manlike and more becoming a minister who having had, as we presume he had, full access to every source of information as to the state of the northern island, to have waited until he had afforded other honorable members not so circumstanced^ to satisfy themselves ,upon a'subject which, even after all the honorable member's means of information, he confesses affords room for * many doubts and objections,' to persons who could not be expected to .take more than a cursory review of it. He then indulges in a long string -of queries, which, he says, -might have beepasked, and winds up with—« Surely, surely, some of these are tempting questions for an opposition to handle, and a fine field fbr f those numerous prophets who are wise after the event/" And then, as if to show how confident he feels upon his own tilting ground, he magnanimously disdains to take advantages of any special pleading technicalities, and tells those clamprers, the oppositionists, who are more like blocks in a barber's window, more for show than use, that they, the ministry, defy, them tb raze the seal from off their bond of office. , ; He then goes through a long' tissue of asseverations, which he calls upon his,audience to take for incontrovertible facts upon his mere-apse dixit; and concludes his declamatory ebullition, like Tririculo in the Tempesti by exclaiming, * I should like to see any man have the face to stand upon the floor of this house and deny the justice of the course the Governor has

taken!' In answer to which, we should say that it would be time enough for the honorable gentleman to throw down his gauntlet when he has afforded the house the same means of forming their judgment as he has had.

. We shall complete bur observations on this, speech and on' the debate which followed in our next. Mr. Richmond's speech will be found in another column.

OF THE PRIDE OF THE ISLES. Wb promised in our last issue to give a detailed account of the Pride of the Isles after her departhis port till the time ofthe wreck, and have much pleasure in making public the following interesting letter from one of the crew,* addressed to Mr. James B. Calder, of the Haven-road, Nelson:—.

Auckland, August,'4th, 1860. Sir.—As the White Swan sails to-day for Wellington, and this being the first opportunity that I have had since my arrival here of writing, I now embrace it. - The contents are to inform you of the loss of the Pride of the Isles on Sunday, 22nd July, at noon, at Takau, 12 miles north of Whaingaroa harbor, at'which place we beached her, to save ourselves, which, thank God, we accomplished, as we went on a good sandy beach. We had been laying to since Friday^at ]8 p.m. We hove to off Taranaki, to which place we ran down with a S.W. wind, so' as to get a pilot for Waitara. When off the Sugar Loaves the breeze freshened and the wind westward'two or three' points. Night comingon we deemed it prudent to haul off, so we put her head to the westward and. stood to sea at 4 p.m. ' From this time until 6 p.m. (when wo hove to, which •we were obliged, to do, the bieezo increasing, and she going bo\y? under,]} we had gained an offing of about -12 miles." *We laid to very well all night. Saturday morning, 21st.—Strong gale and heavy sea; showed the head of the stay-sail to it, so as to reach her off the land a3 much as possible, which we found she did; acted very well, never shipping more water than could be expected, until about 4 p.m., when she shipped a tremendous sea which carried the mainsail clean out of the' bolt ropes, it being then close-reefed. Our mainsail being now gone, and a heavy sea running, wewere obliged to have recourse to some-; thing else, so we tried her- under|#he cl6se T reefed foresail; but finding that she did not' act well under that canvas (haying previously hauled down the staysail) we got up a new jib from below and set it on the mainmast with the throat halliards, after which we found she laid to well, the jib keeping her head to sea.; She commenced making water ; we had to pump her every halfhour or so: it would have tried a good old"country coaster with the sea that was op and we so deeply laden. Laid to very well all night, an occasional spray coming aboard now, and, again. ; . ~ ' • Sunday, 22nd:—The last day on which the Pride of the Isles was to jump about on hernative element. At daylight saw the land to leeward,: wind W. by S. and W.S.W., as it had been.all the time. Strong gale and heavy sea with no ap-' pearance of a change; making a little more water, j We had now been lying to about 40 hours; and as we must soon go ashore, early that night' at the farthest, and not knowing whether the coast was iron bound, although the Pilot (N.;Z. Pilot, I mean) said there were rocky points and sandy .baysbetween, which we found to be true; andknowing that we must go ashore that night, we agreed to beach her with daylight, which we did;; and I feel assured that had we waited until night we should all. have perished, before we^ .got to .the beach, the sea breaking nearly two miles off. S_he ran very well for a mile or so, but the farther we got in the more sea we had as a matter of course. When we got within half-a-mile or so of ; the beach the tiller broke, dose in fact in the rudder head, which latter showed signs of weakness,' beginning to split in the wake of the eye. The sea in which the tiller parted pooped her, filling the decks and .would have washed me Sway had I hot made the end of the lead line fast round my body before'coming into the break. Jack and Dan being on.the squaresail yard. .Finding that I could not steer her when we came into the break I; called Larry, he being about the foremasti We mknaged to do it between us. I dp not know where he went to, the sea took him forward; he came aft, but before we' could get the tiller shipped again she broached to and would not go off, although it was all head sail as you may say, foresail and stayy sail. We ran her under the close reefed foresail, and before coming into the break let out all the reefs which helped > her, or I believe she; wouldr have pooped before. She attempted it once or twice, snipping a good deal of water; but run she must then; ' ' " 1 :! ?'

Aftershepoopedand broached to she became unmanageable; so we ; took to :the rigging and she went on shore broadside on. First drawback Smith jumped on shore, next Dan, Jack, and myself; and thankful-we were to get there. _ She presented a good many shapes before the tide left her,'it being ebb tide:, sometimes heavily logged, sometimes one way, sometimes another; when the tide loft she assumed lier natural.appearance.. Smith's boat is all safe; the Maories have her and are likely to stick to her. We stopped there two days; the natives seemed friendly at first, but behaved very badly to us afterwards, taking nearly everything from us, and claimed £8. for assisting us for an hour or two ; they have got all belonging to the craft. We made a declaration: to Captain Johnson, <3.P.,-who took our deposition; this was when; we came to Waiuku~a small village forty miles from here; he lives at Whaingaroa and is going tp see about. the matter. They flourished tomahawks and jumped about in a-savage manner to frighten'us. We were rather'afraid too, they being so much superior in number to us, amounting to thirty or thereabouts. They seized Smith's gun; which he happened to be cleaning, for surety for the hoot. They, are great extortioners, they having nearly all our clothes, land all belonging to the vessel which was "saved, 'except one compass, and 'they then claimed 0£8 ; wei. got. them to accept £2, and we hopkedif. \ ! ..... -i We have walked about sixty.miles, a'n^ awful r6ad, and rode twenty into Auckland. . We, would have gone spqthwardto Taranaki, but were afraid of the natives. Alt the Europeans liave left that part except a fe,w at Whaingaroa.; '• ■. -■' - ;. We saved nothing muchbelonging totheivegsel, except the squaresail, the foresail, tarpaulin \ stove, afew dishes, &c. We tried to get the chains,, ; but they were jammed below—she having -shot tbe casks of lime and sundry, other things.into her nbsev miming in the break; in fact, slieiis a -tp'tal wreck^aa .there,, will he votbe .any thing, go); from ihe Mioris

She parted amidships during the night of Sunday, the 22nd inst. When we-turned out next morning at daylight the stern was the onjy part which held together; the mainmast went at the deck, the foremast at the hounds; this was done in the fall, as the spar' was sound; the mainmast was not so. - „ P " "' 3 The natives are chopping her up for firewood. There was not as much coal a's would light the fire to be seen on the beach next morning, nor a brick, nor a bit of the lime. We took the timber ashore and the steamer's pump, the timber, jamming the chains and squai'esail, had'to be removed first. We worked till dark that night, expecting to save all next day; but as I stated before it was all smashed up, coals, bricks, anchors and chains, ropes, all gone down in the sand. - .We also make a declaration'to the Resident Magistrate here. Mr. Curtis is here, and he will advance Dan as much money as will carry fus^ to Nelson, where we will go by the first opportunity. Our deposition from the Magistrate' Mr. Curtis has handed to Mr. Stafford, Colonial Secretary, and he, Mr. Cuitis, thinks that the government will send us back (but I do not see that they are bound), there being no societies "for anything of the kind (although necessary). However, I believe he will do as much as he can for us. We saved the mail, for which we will he paid the expense incurred in carrying it from th© wreck, tor which we paid

£1 103. to a native; it cost us about £8 altogether before we got here. Wo arrived here last Thursday. We had bad winds and bad weather nearly all the time previous to this. We sighted' Cape Egmont next morning after leaving Nelson, Monday 16th, at 10 a.m. and the Sugar Loaves about 2 p.m. same day.' Thus far we did very well. 3 pan. wind shifted from E.S.E. to N-.E-.,-then IN. to N.W., fresh breeze; bore up for Port Hardy; got half- way across the strait; wind S.W. to S.; win.d flying about, with lighting and heavy rain.; ' Tuesday^anJ Wednesday, weather unsettled. Thursday morning, wind shifted to S.-E. and blew hard; ran-her for Cape Egtnont; sighted the land at daylight; fine breeze until 3 p.m., then about 4 miles north of Cape Egtnont, when it died away calm; no wind all night; heavy swell from the.W. and W.S.W. , ••• ' •.'-' . . Friday morning ran down about 11 a.m. for the roadstead with a S.W: wind, the outer SugarLoaf bearing .about N.E.; breeze freshened and came more from tho westward, as I stated before. This was the night on which we hove to. Nothing more worthy of remark at present except that it blew even harder on Sunday night than it did previously with hail showers, it lasted all Monday and Monday night. , . lanvyourdtruly, .- ' ' SAMUEL A. LEITCH. To Mr. J.'B Calder, Haven Road, Nelson.