THE 'FLYING CLOUD.'—AN APPEAL TO THE CONSCIENCE.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXIII, Issue 3058, 15 May 1867, Page 6

THE 'FLYING CLOUD.'— AN APPEAL TO THE CONSCIENCE.

To the Editor of the Dailt Sobthmn Cross. Sir, — As duped victims, we most keenly feel the bitter injustice of our present positioa in relation to the 'JJ'lying Cloud ' affair. If pity is any good, we have plenty of it ; but mere pity, in itself, is a poor plaster for our sore. Pitiful expiessions of commiseration, when they come from those who hay« the control and interest of the ship, or ftom. those who reap the benefit of our passage money, seem a refinement of tantalizing cruelty. It is like telling a naked and hungry man to be warm and clothed, to be full and satisfied, wheD the requirements of such conditions are withheld from him. "When money is paid for a special purpose, and then afterwards transferred through the hands and names of two or three other people, and on the faith of that design and end, is it right, we ask, to divert such means from its true purpose ? One bird in the hand may, to those who look at the legal side of the question only, be worth more than two in the bush. We have no wish to see any of the owner's creditors wronged ; but to the conscience of those who have any just sense of, right and wrong we make our appeal. If the just weight and true balance of conscience says it is more just to deprive us of oar rights to pay the debts of another party, so let it be ; but, without sophistry, let them well weigh the question, Is it doing to others as they would like to be done unto themselves ? To the mere mistaken, selfish, first law of preservation, it may appear a very objectionable way of putting the subject, because the prevailing notions of the self-preservation code are most sadly and blindly perverted. To wrong others to save one's own self is to divide the house against itself, and to subvert the true foundations and disjoint those stones that should be cemented in perfect harmony and order. As one of the sufferers in the 'Flying Cloud' affair, personally the writer is ready, without any ill-will, co sacrifice his own interest. If those who benefit by his loss think they have the greater right to wrong him, we then say it is a very low senne of justice which demands a suffering victim to satisfy the barbarous claims and mode of payment of other men's debts. If they have the best right thereto, let them take it, and may God's blessing go with it, is his sincere wish. We cannot answer for the forgiving spirit and good wishes of our fellow victims, nor can we feel that we have any right to meddle with their claims to the benefit, or otherwise, of those who may reap the good results of their passage money, &c. — I have, 4c. , William Yeates. Chapel-street, Auckland, May, 1867.