MR M'LEAN'S RESOLUTIONS.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 538, 3 August 1869, Page 2

MR M'LEAN'S RESOLUTIONS.

The following paragraph appears in the Wellington Independent of the 24th inst.:—" As an instance of the wonderful manner in which news is sometimes manufactured, and of the way in which people at a distance hecome better informed than we are regarding matters occurring under our very noses, we may quote the following telegram, dated Wellington, July 14, published in the Westport Times of the following day as having come from its own correspondent : ' Mr M'Lean's motion respecting the sending of Commissioners to England, to apply to the Home Government for troops for the defence of the colony, was carried last night by a majority of six. Three of the majority were Maori members.' The Westport Times

indulges in a congratulatory leader on the abandonment of self-reliance by the House of Representatives. What a well-informed man the correspondent must be!" We need not tell our readers, who are acquainted with our correspondent through his usually accurate letters and telegrams, that he is, indeed, a well-informed man. How a mistake happened in this instance is thus explained by our correspondent: —"I asked a friend to send you the news briefly, and I find that he telegraphed that 'M'Lean's motions were carried by majority for Government of sis.' The fact was that Mr. Fox's resolutions came on for consideration on Tuesday, having been passed in Committee. The first of these resolutions was carried on division by a majority for Ministers of 37 to SI. The consideration of the second was postponed till after the delivery of the Financial Statement. Mr M'Lean's resolutions recommissioners to be sent Home i'or troops were postponed for a fortnight. I hope you will pardon the mistake. Had I been well enough to attend to the telegram myself it would not have happened."