AN OFFICIAL MANUSCRIPT.

Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2860, 15 April 1878, Page 2

AN OFFICIAL MANUSCRIPT.

(HOK THJt WAKGAHtn OHBOfflClft.) SIB GBOBOB OBBT TO JIB BALIANCB.

We in informed that the following letter was picked op near the residence of the MinUl«^jfc*p Education, from whence it had probaWy.been blown during.one of tho'so pleasant gales for which Wellington is rso justly celebrated. The fortunate finder, who has' lately become' a devoted adherent of Sir George Grey, immediately forwarded its contents to us by telephone, and we publish it for the benefit of our readers, posterity, and .the human race :—

Hinemoa* (at sea* off Martin's Bay), - March 2,1878.

Pear Mr Ballance.—l bare just read your article in the Evening Herald of the 26th nil., in which you so thoroughly expose the acts by which the governing classes in New Zealand seek to maintain and strengthen their power. The noble and eloquent language in which you denounce the Times' correspondent, Mr Halcombe, reminds me very much of Milton, and the phrase "veneered nature " is a most beautiful expression. There is a high tone about your ..writing which I alwajs admired very much, and your remarks about Mr Fox could not be surpassed by my friend Mr Bees himself in their good taste and gentlemanly feeling. I intend to forward your article to the editor of the London Times with a note informing him that it was written by a member of my Ministry. That will be a sufficient answer to Mr Halcombe's most wicked assertion that in politics " the colony has sadly retrograded from the high standard of former years." X doubt whether even the author of "Lothaiv" could hare written in as high and derated a style. I hope Lord Beaconsfield will see it; he might introduce your allusion to the " penny gaff" into a speech in the Lords with great and excellent effect, and -allude to Mr Gladstone as that " statesman who made wry faces and screeched," and so made people think him clever. I always did dislike Mr Fox. In Mr Whitaker's lime be used to say and write the most wrong and unpleasant things, and now I feel convinced that through Mr Halcombe he is trying to influence public opinion against me in England by means or The Times newspaper. There is a large party there that arp always seeking to do nic an injury bepause of my republican principles. The .press Itughed at me when { expressed a fear

that Auckland might be bombarded bj one of Her Majesty's ships, but I am convinced there teat $ometkhg in it. It is quite possible that even now, under the pretext of being prepared for a war with Russia, a fleet may be sent to this country with orders to destroy Wellington, if there is any hope of burying me beneath its ruins. Indeed, I often think that the enemies of the liberties of the people, who hare already destroyed the Constitution of New Zealand, are en. ! gaged in a base conspiracy against me. It !is only by-.the exercise of the. greatest^ ' care and prudence that I hare to far escaped,,; Snowing how much the wel. fare of future generations depends upon my life, it "would" to wrong^to iw rtny risk. • I therefore avoid dining at Government House. Though' Ido not take wine, they might poison me in my soup; Htow-~ ever, surrounded by a phalanx; of my r friends, and supported by the love an&f affection of the people of this country, I fear nothing...« .. : '"'... , . .., deferring' again to' jour' admirable article, I would raggest tut caution mil be exercised in dealing with historical fact;. • Abuse and iuvectivSrajtffalwuys safe, but it is often dangerous to make < definite.statements about anything reala^ I never do myself, as it interfere! with liberty of action. You are quite right in saying that "if any tbingu calculate* to create a feeling of disgust, it is this hankering after the days that are passed* " when the Assemblj slept aadkotjvei. grew wealthy at the expense of ths> 1 enough Xo ; be iiafe. No one. eaa prove that 4he Assembly did not swep, ana that the knaves: did not trow^wsallhjrvKMFi experience is that they ;oftenr< do wftsi' when the Assembly is wide awake.*-, It , was, however, a little improdent to refer to such facts as the sale of ths Waitotara.T and Hawke's Bay landa at 10a an aenitr > ''lynx-eyed speculators," beeause-these - sales were made under.my own land regulations, and through Ukat very provincial machinery which I pride myself on having provided. At that,time I had a. better opinion of human' nature—especially "veneered nature" than I ham how, and I had no idea that'crew X*f^\ lynx-eyed speculator" would bewieked enough to give only ten shillings an aero ior land, when that was the price fixed by law. A search among the; records of the Crown Lands Office would probably show that such' baseness was.eonfinei to large capitalists, and that smaller pur- " chasers ; always paid at pueh .- aa the/ thought the land weald be wort| ten years afterwards. My own opinion is that no man owning more thati JJOO acres can be good, virtuous, and patriotic While I was-; quartered: in Ireland^ I always observed that it was only the.rich and wealthy who boughtvs eheapiy as they could, while the poor and* peasantry of that glorious country scorned te< be guilty of such meanness, and would always give aa much for a thin, lean big as they would for a fat one, knowing that in time both weald be of equal value.; Tomi thinking the selfishness and agreed or capitalists ,is at the root of every evil which mankind endures, andT trust that th« future historian of New Zealand will be able to say of that great liberial "party of which I am the head, that we found ' the. colony nothing bat a vast field for the employment of capital and labor, and that we left it fuU of laborJempldyed in the formation of happy homes, and utterly denuded of that capital or money; which is the root of all evil.r-I am, Ac. ( t ; (Phonographed) O. Gmt. -. J P.B.*-iffr Haeandrew was' so cross when we fished him out of the water that: I almost regretted we didn't let bim stay there He is, 1 I think, jealous of* your influence, and says that since you joined the Government one of our side said he feared our proposals, when we know whit % they are, would be known as the " Pinch- / beck Policy." This looks like one of Mr Fox's " prepared jokes."—O. G.