OUR CORRESPONDENTS.

Auckland Chronicle and New Zealand Colonist, Volume 1, Issue 10, 31 December 1842, Page 2

OUR CORRESPONDENTS.

Wb have frequently expressed a wMi that our readers should give their aid in rendering the " Chronicle'* what such a journal ought to be, usefu l , interesting, and amusing, by communicating to us for publication in its columns, whatever may be calculated to effect that object. We ha* e to thank several correspondents for their valuable contributions, but we should be glad if they were more frequent and more numerous. At the same time we must caution our friends, in commenting upon men or measures, not to make statements which they have not taken some pains to ascertain to be wellfounded. Already the " Chronicle''' has gained, and we hope deserved, a considerable share of public confidence. From the Bay of Islands, Sydney, and Port Phillip, we are in receipt per the Luna, of a considerable addition to our list of subscribers. This we attribute not only to our "zeal for the public interest," to our " independence in principle," but, in a great measure, to that "moderation in tone" which has characterized our editorial arti cries. We have been careful, too, not to state as a fact what we did lot know to be true. Although we are not to be deemed responsible for the views of our correspondents, it will be e ident that our journal wi'l. ose much of its daim to the confidence of the pub \v, if it should bec</iuVthe ehie'efor conveying erroneous information, or for the expression of unfounded statements. No public journal can possess any just claim to the confidence of its readers, whose columns ai e occupied with contradictions of t'ie statements which have been made in i s previous, numbers, and with statements in ail probability,« f those which are to come. We a-e led into these remarks by the communication < f " Delta,'''' w 1 Hi appeared in our last number. It seems that two sections of land were pu - chased for the Ao onial Secretary. " Delta' in his lettlfcttatt s as " a fact," that some (ither \ eminent Officer was purchase these two sections, " but that when his Excellency's agent commenced bidding, the officer alluded to fearing to opp< so his master, did not bid against him, and thus sacrificed the interest of his friend to preserve his own personal safety ; and the two a lotments were a lowed to fa I into his Exce'lency'• hands, at the rate of £23, and £24 1< s. per a<re, whi e the adjoining allotments, not nearly so good, sold at the rate of £35 per acre." We thought it our duty to make some inquiry into the truth of this statement as it reflects very seriously on the conduct and character of several indiudua s. The result of that inquiry is, that the *• fact*' is no fact; and that the statement is wholly unfounded. Moreover, professing fairness, and impartiality, and regard for truth, we &el called upon to say, Government Officers though they be, that in buying land we think the Colonial Secretary right in so publicly ; and that the other partyif we know the party alluded to —is not the man " to sacrifice the interest of his friend to preserve his own personal safety." The real fact we beie* & to be, that it was entirely through the

mistake of the person actually emp o\ed to bid, that the allotment was not bid up to £4O per acre.