THE NORTHERN WAIROA REGATTA.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXXII, Issue 5770, 25 March 1876, Page 3

THE NORTHERN WAIROA REGATTA.

To the Editor : Sir, — I was astonished to sec in the New Zealand Herald of Thursday a highly sensational and mtich exaggerated account of some recent proceedings at Mauugawhare. Having been present at the place throughout those proceedings, and a spectator of them, I am in a positition to say that the corr,espoudenthasgivenamost untrue description of the conduct of the men who attended the regatta. The afcatemenfc that they were "maddened with drink," and "fought like wild heaals," is •imply I ~a gross exaggeration. 'On holiday occasions, such as that referred to, tho gum-diggers and bushmen are accustomed to indulge" in some harmless relaxation, after \tho monotonous toil of months, 'and it is often the_ case that some of them- indulge injnore liquor than way 'be altogether good for them. But very often, as was the case in t)hi3 instance, the men are not merely excited by drink, but by a spirit of fun and frolic, in which some harmless and goodhumoured trials of strength nnd skill take place. In this ca'BO one young man, Nooman, was anxious to display his superior skill in boxing and single stick, but the wholo thing was given and taken in perfect good humour, and without any of those terrible results which the Herald correspondent tortures his imagination in picturing to tho readers of your contemporary. The statement that Nooman lay ' drunk at the bottom of his boat is also untrue. It was fatigue and not drunkenness that led him to lie down. The that tho proceedings " were a lasting infamy to the hotel-keepers " is a libel upon the proprietors'of two well-regulated and generally very orderly houses, and tho reflections cast upon tho men are not only injurious to a hard-working class of settlers but a slur upon tho whole district. Neither is it true that the men went away intoxicated. They parted in perfect friendship with those who .remained, and after .the unfortunate accident returned to Maungawharo bringing back unopened and untouched in the straw coverings the very bottles of grog which they took away. I may say, also, that the hotel-keepers had refused to supply liquor to any of the men whp, appeared to be excited, and only gave it to travellers whp wero going home— a distance of 'many miles from Maungawhare. , They all appealed deeply grieved at • the accident, ■ most of them went to bed quite sober at an early hour, nnd none of them wero drunk. It is also grossly untrue to say tha.t Charles Adamson was drunk when hewak drowned; he was showing off his skill in boating and pulling round tho other boats in his outrigger, and this, no doubt, oxcited him, and not grog, of which he had takon very little. I think it only right to absent men who aro maligned, and to the memory of tho unfortunate deceased, to clear their characters from tho reflections which a sensational newspaper correspondent has cast upon them. I have no interest whatever in Maungawhare, having been only a visitor on the river ; but, as a well-wisher of the district, I am simply influenced by a desire to see truth and fair play.— I am, &o., F, T. Cleave. Auckland, March 24th,