The Lyttelton Times

Lyttelton Times, Volume III, Issue 127, 11 June 1853, Page 6

The Lyttelton Times

June 11, 1853. We have received a letter from Mr. Sewell in which he complains of the .remarks we made last week upon what we termed the silence and impolicy of the Association with regard to their accounts. Mr. Sewell takes exception to these words, and affirms that the Association have not bsen guilty of " intentionally" keeping back their accounts; and as to impolicy, he cannot guess to what that word refers. He adds that our columns will sufficiently refute our remarks. Upon this we beg leave to differ.

If Mr. Sewell will refer back he will find in a letter of his addressed to Mr. Fitz Gerald, published on the 23rd April, the following passage : "On my arrival I found the mind of the Colony full of rancour and suspicion on this subject" (the accounts). It was owing to the universal ignorance as to how the funds in the hands of the Asso-'

ciation had been appropriated, that so many letters appeared in our columns calling for information. It is perfectly true that Mr. Sewell on his arrival informed the colonists that he was daily expecting the accounts, and that he would present them to the Provincial Council when formed; in the mean time, the colonists received the laconic information that they had been duly examined and found correct by a Government Auditor, and their general results published in accordance with the charter. It was this extremely vague and general report to which the colonists took exception, and in consequence, for some weeks, our columns were.,crowded,,with letters expressive of extreme dissatisfaction. This universal dissatisfaction drew from Mr; Sewellhis letter of the 4th March, in which, for the first time, he gave the colonists detailed information respecting the manner in which their money had been applied. The public received this information, if not with satisfaction, at any rate, without remark; and therefore we were perfectly justified in asserting that had the information been afforded in the first instance, much of the anger displayed would have been obviated, and the members of the Association saved from attack. Their silence was impolitic as the results have shewn. It was to this particularly that we referred, and not to the other general charges that Mr. Sewell includes in the word, impolicy. We are afraid that we cannot gratify him by reducing into a specific form all the charges made against the Association ; indeed, it would be superfluous our doing so ; for Mr. Sewell has them all at his fingers' ends, and he cannot do better than devote his first leisure hour to that vindication he conceives necessary to clear ]the Association. He will thus remove those prejudices which, according to his showing, are the results of an ignorance of the true state of the case. It was this very ignorance which produced the outcry respecting the accounts, and Mr. Sewell, having informed us what the other grievances are, cannot do better, in order to ward off the assaults he advisedly invites, than to them by afford - ing every information in his power. We look forward to it with an interest commensurate with its importance. *.•

We shall await with considerable anxiety the report of the Church Committee as to the value of the lands in which a large portion of the ecclesiastical and educational funds have been invested. Mr. Sewell inclines to the opinion that the Committee will not coincide with the views expressed in the Times. We shall be delighted to find this to be the cate, and that the " courteous auditor" will prove wrong in his assumption that the lands may remain for , an indefinite period before they acquire a saleable value. We wish the Colonists well out of the " choice of difficulties" they had no hand in involving themselves in ; but the " money being spent," nothing remains for them but to make the best they can with its exchange. We expect soon to have an authentic account of the progress of the Colony during the last year. With this to guide us, it will be in our power to meet the ungene- ; rous pleasantries of the Times. Canterbury is not quite so miserable a place, nor its Settlers the sentimental pilgrims, that: jour-

nal'now chooses to call them. In the early days of the Settlement the Times gave it a lifting hand for which we were grateful ; if it now assails it, we have the satisfaction of knowing that it is in so satisfactory a condition that not even the denunciations of that powerful journal can materially affect it. It is really laughable to find a gentleman in Printing-house Square, whose knowledge of New Zealand is probably confined to an imperfectly drawn chart, gravely asserting that the site of Christchurch is little better than a morass. Such an assertion is an evidence of the writer's imagination, not of his love of truth. The Capital is, indeed, separated from Lyttelton by a hill, a. few hundred feet high, but not from the sea. The day is not far distant when this obstacle will be removed, and the difficulty is just sufficiently great to render its being overcome rather a subject of satisfaction than otherwise. Had we no difficulties to encounter we should indeed be easy-going colonists. Even now our progress is marked, rapid, and cheering; and a few years will see Canterbury, in spite of itself, one of the most thriving colonies of these seas. But its settlers are able and energetic, and with these aids what shall withstand its progress? The Times may be assured that good advice will always be heeded, but laboured pleasantries and obsolete jokes will not make any impression on the " sentimental pilgrims." "