MR. STEVENS CREDENTIALS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume II, Issue 146, 25 June 1867, Page 2

MR. STEVENS CREDENTIALS.

To the Editor of the ' Nelson Evening Mail.' Sir — It appears my remarks have aroused Mr. Stevens to publish a few " credentials," and as they are now before the public, and are named by him " important papers relative to himself which are to be brought under the notice of the Executive," I think any one has a perfect right to look into them. I shall take them in the order in which they come. Mr. Boughtou's letter comes from the Defence Office, Wellington, aud labors under the same disadvantage as Mr. Stevens himself, i.e. of the writer being comparatively unknown here. It is the usual sort of letter which a twenty years' friendship would suggest; if auy thing it seeks to prove too much, for if Mr. Stevens' "aptitude for business, etc.," have gained for him the confidence of many business men in London, why go to Mr. Boughton to prove it? One doesn't light a tallow candle to see the sun ! Mr. Helps' letter se'Jms to be written more with a view to let people understand that tbe writer had been on the Stock Exchange himself. Well, I believe him, of course, and he is a very decent fellow in his way, but unless he had told us so, I don't think auy one would have supposed it. Admitting the premises, however,for the sake of argument and to push the same to a practical issue, Mr Helps has been ou the Stock Exchange,, therefore Mr Helps's frieud is quite qualified to make a railway — dem — I beg pardon — to the moon; quod est reductio ad dbsurdum. Next come Mr Holt's two letters, one of which I think Mr Stevens rather erred in publishing, as it gives a clue to the "whole of his scheme (lets the cat out of the bag, as it were), and at the same time answer*

smmmmmammmmmmim^mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmtm — distinctly Mr Drew's inquiries in the Colonist this morning. I have only to quote Mr Holt's words in his letter to Mr Stevens to explain my meaning — " I shall be glad to hear that your anticipation of employment by the Provincial Government of Nelson has been realised." Verb, sat.! Next comes Major Heaphy, who only speaks from hearsay, and reminds one of . the old story : — "Are you a musician?" quoth he. " No," replied the other, " but I have a cousiu who lives in a lane in which there is a house wherein resides a man who plays upon the German flute," &c. But his lordship the Bishop's letter is the best part of the farce. In the name of the Church, says his Lordship, I bear testimony to your fitness, &c. Is it? Not a bit of it ! It is simply a polite letter from a divine, acknowledging a donation from a private individual,and an expression of a uniformity of opinion between the two about the propriety of "State aid to religion." What, in the name of all that'spracticable, has this to do with Mr Stevens's ability to make railways? It simply reminds one of the fruitseller's cries in the streets of Constantinople — " In the uame of the Prophet, Figs ! " Yours, &c, Moonshine. June 25, 1867.