LETTERS TO TEE EDITOR.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 6, Issue 323, 25 December 1862, Page 3

LETTERS TO TEE EDITOR.

December 12, 1862.

Sir,—My attention has been drawn to an article in your paper, by a leader in tin Daily Southern Gross of the 21st ult., on the subject of the Listers. In your article it appears you have accused the Editor of the Gross of having stated an untruth in writing, that the subscriptions for the Listers at Wanganui would be less than might have been anticipated, “ owing to the Fox missionary party setting an example of refusing to subscribe, on the plea that the woman ought not to have published her statement ; in other words, that truth, not pleasing to the Fox missionary party, should be kept from light. As the Gross has published this statement at my instance, I beg to inform you that this reason for refusing -to subscribe was actually given to me by the son of a missionary, who told me that his father objected to subscribe this very reason ; also, one of the leading men here of the Fox party has refused to subscribe, and 1 personally know that be gave the same as a reason for not having'subscribed. I don’t desire to mention names, unless actually obliged to do so to support the truth of my statements.

With regard to your statement, that Mokena, the Maoi’i with whom Mrs. Lister was engaged, is a boy only twelve years of age. . You must have been misinformed on the subject, as I heard a native state at the inquest that Mokena was born before the. Wanganui war in 1847, and from what the native said Mokena must have been at least a year old when the war began ; this would make him about sixteen years old ; at all events, he is as old as many Maories with whom our soldiers wore engaged at: Taranaki, arid therefore Mrs. Lister deserves all credit for the bravery with which she defended the lives of her husband and children ; and in any English colony she would receive a handsome memorial for her bravery ; and 1 hope that all tbe settlers here, excepting those people who refuse to subscribe for the reason given in the Gross, who have not subscribed already, will do so before the lists are closed. The lists will be closed at Wanganui on the last day of this month. I am sir, your obdt. servant, I. It. Cooper. [Not having received the No. of tlie Southern Gross in which the article alluded to by Major Cooper appeared, we can say nothing about it. Most of the statements in that paper regarding the Listers were either incorrect or exaggerated, as we at the time endeavoured to show. The pai-ticular assertion now referred to was this, — ‘ • the dominant party—(what our correspondent now calls the ‘ Fox Missionary party ’ we presume)—approved of the Magistrate’s course. But even this is not far enough for them to go. They positively decline to extend the hand of Christian charity to relieve one of- their own race, etc. ... because .the wife of the injured man . . . had the temerity to publish the particulars of the outrage.” In reply to this statement, of which it now appears our gallant correspondent was the author, we said, —“ So far as we know there is not a settler who has refused to subscribe towards the Lister fund on the plea that is mentioned.” It might have been presumed that Major Cooper, who, with great kindness, canvassed for subscriptions, did not make this very sweeping asser tion without siifficient reasons. But what are they? One individual—the son of a Missionary who thought Mr. Fox’s party wrong in the action they took in the Taranaki affair—refused to subscribe. This Major Cooper knows, and we can easily believel-it. • The other ca.se he has heal’d of. He mentioned to us the gentleman to whom he refers, and we have his ; authority for denying that he ever refused to subscribe, or ever gave a reason for not subscribing. Weare reduced, therefore, to the supposition, that the Fox-Missionary party consists of .one man. With respect to the age of Mokena, it is quite possible he may be sixteen ; we; had our information from a gentleman who has been among Maories for many years, and who thought from his appearance that he might be about twelve years old.] : ,

Wanganui, December 19, 1862. Sir, —1 did not find Linklater and McLaren six years ago sitting on a log on Sydney beach, as you said in your last issue, but I found them seven and a half years ago sitting on a bench in the long room, of the Seaman’s Shipping Office through which all seaman are shipped in the port of Sydney. I mention this that there may be no wrong interpretation put upon the word ‘log’—the Stocks being the ludicrous mode in Sydney, some 20 years ago, of punishing, often very unjustly, the craft to which I have the honour to belong. ;■ ! Your Obt. Servant, Thomas B. Taylor.