CORRESPONDENCE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume IV, Issue 204, 14 October 1854, Page 6

CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of the Lyttelton limes,

Ghristchurch, 12tb October, 1854

Sir.—As I publicly said, at the meeting in Lyttelton on Monday last, that I hardly expected fair play from a paper so notoriously the organ of a particular party as yours, I feel bound to thank you for having given so much space to the report of my imperfect and hurried attempt to reply to ■Mr. Fitz Gerald on that occasion; and, also, for what I frankly believe to be a well-intentioned attempt to report fairly what fell from me.

That report contains more than one important inaccuracy or omission, but I am perfectly willing to allow that the pressure of time and matter made them unavoidable, —especially as I had no opportunity of seeing your reporter's notes. I shall have other means of setting myself right with regard to them. I trust, however, that you will let me draw attention to one most important omission. Mr. Alporti in seconding the first resolution, very distinctly said that he hoped the Constitution Act would be altered, so as to make clause 8 to agree with the provisions of the Jury Ordinance, and thus to disqualify my father from taking any part in the public affairs of this country, on account of events in his life nearly thirty years ago. I began my speech by challenging Mr. Alport to bring this subject forward, not by indirect implication, but in a straightforward manner, when my father should be here himself, as I fully expect he soon will be. And I related to the meeting how a similar attempt to exclude him from the privileges of an elector, made by the Featherston party at Wellington, had been foiled with disgrace to them by his readiness to meet it in the Provincial Council of which he is a member.

Mr. Alport mooted the subject, and I invited him to do so more openly, before a crowded as- , sembly of fellow-colonists of my father and my- v , self. The fact then ought not to be omitted fronrJ^ your report; even though such an act, on the part of this recent adherent of Mr. Fitz Gerald, may tend to confirm my assertion, that the latter combined with the Featherston party i» Wellington to destroy, by every unscrupulous means, my father's public position i» this country.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant, E. Jerninguam Wakefjem>'