LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 7, Issue 358, 27 August 1863, Page 3

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

August IS, 1563. Sir, —Can you, or any of your correspondents, inform me and a few more of your readers equally ignorant as myself, what is the exact position held by a gentleman of the name of White, whose name appears so frequently in your local intelligence ? We, in our ignorance, have always had the idea that, if a Dictator is to rule this settlement, Sir G. Grey would be the man ; but. according to your intelligence, Mr. White already holds the office. At one time, when a party of natives from the south wish to pass through the settlement en route for Taranaki, you iuform us Mr. White sent them word he would stop them. You do not say how he would do it, whether by standing in the road a la Tom Crib, or by calling out the military ; but perhaps the explanation may be found ia the after part of the article, where you say Belli had written to order them not to come this road, so the threat was all bosh. At one time you tell us that Mr. Whire had been invited to a meeting at Kaiwaiki, where we all expected the question of peace or war at Wanganui would be settled, and that instead of going he sent word for the chiefs to come to him. But the intelligence in your last impression crowns all ; you say, “It is said that Pehi will return very shortly, and we believe he hinted as much in a letter to Mr. White, in which he speaks of himself as the settlers’ friend ; and to which Mr. White, wo are told, replied, that as he had shown his friendship by going away and leaving the settlers at the mercy of any evil-disposed native ” (mind, not natives, in the plural), “he must not be surprised if they ceased to place confidence in his professions, and took steps to protect themselves.” I know nothing of Pehi, but I must say, if your information is correct, this is just the sort of correspondence as is likely to turn him from what he calls himself, the “ settlers’ friend,” into the settlers’ enemy, and at the same time a shameful acknowledgment of weakness on our parts. Do you, or Mr. White, after the numerous reports you have published of the goings and oomiugs of this Pelii, mean to insinuate that now he is gone we are at the mercy of every ill-disposed native, more than we were when lie was at Ivaiwaiki ? Is Pehi, or any other chief, to be held responsible for the act of any one or two evil-disposed natives, any more than our Resident Magistrate is'for the acts of an evil-disposed settler, and are we so lost to shame as to acknowledge we are not prepared to protect ourselves against a single native ? I pause for a reply, and in the meantime subscribe myself, Veebuji Sap. [We respectfully inform our correspondent, and such other of our readers, if there be any such, as ignorant as himself of the fact, that J. White, Esq., is the Native Resident Magistrate, under Sir G. Grey’s Maori institutions, for this district ; and, as such, is charged with the delicate and responsible task of controlling the Wanganui natives at the present crisis, and of bringing them under the rule of British law.