CORRESPONDENCE.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 72, 22 July 1843, Page 287

CORRESPONDENCE.

To THB EDITOft Ofr +HB NbLSON EXAMINER.

Sir — We, the undersigned inhabitants' of Nelson* observing that a certain erroneous statement, calculated to convey an impression unfavourable to the memory of our lamented fellow colonists who fell in the late massacre at the Wairoo, has been put forth by the Police Magistrate at Wellington, and never, even after evidence of its gross incorrectness, been contradicted by him, are desirous of expressing our strong disapprobation of such omission on his part, and of giving, if possible, equal publicity to the real facts of the case. For this purpose we beg to avail ourselves of your columns. ]

In the maifesto of the police magistrate alluded to, occurs the following passage : —

" I should fail in my duty did I not declare my conviction,' after obtaining evidence from all quarters, that the affray was not the result of any premeditated design on the part of the natives, but that, on the. contrary, they sought by every means to avert it, and did not fire a shot until five of their party had fallen, including the wife of Ranghiaita, who at the moment bore his own son in her arms."

-ffow, wewillnotstopto guard against the false impressions made upon the minds of persons unacquainted with Maori customs— the associations altogether beside the mark excited by the term " the wife of Ranghiaita," as applied to one among many of the temporary favourites of a savage chicf — we merely remark that the idea of this woman having been killed at all rests alone on Maori hearsay. Again, we will not dwell upon the absurdity of denying the existence of " any premeditated design on the part of the natives," when it has been clearly proved that Rauparaha went down to the Wairoo amply provided with arms and ammunition. But we do assert, without fear of contradiction, that, of all the incidents of the shocking affair, there is none on which the evidence of the survivors is more decided and unanimous than on the fact that no orders to lire had been given by any of the party, when the accidental discharge of the first musket was followed by an instantaneous volley from the Maories, by which several white people fell. Mr. Tuckett's evidence, in particular) is conclusive on this point. ;

These facts the Police Magistrate was probably unaware of at the time he issued his manifesto, but he must have become cognizant of them immediately afterwards. We complain that he has not given to any true statement of *he case the same publicity and sanetio* he had previously given to the false* " ,

With respect to the persons authorising and conducting the late unfortunate expedition* we declste.it to be our firm conviction, derived from an intimate knowledge of their character, as well as from their sentiments expressed before embarking in it, that they were actuated by no other motives than a humane desire of preventing future disputes and outrages, by dealing decisively with the first ; that, both from feeling and principle^ they were utterly incapable of adopting, without deep deliberation and anxious Forethought, any measures involving a possibility of the loss of human life^ and that, if they erred in judgment at all-, it was in supposing that respect for the laws was to be exacted as well from the native as the European population of this colony, and that their fellow countrymen were entitled to protection, in life. and property^ from that Government which they are taxed to support and compelled to obey. ** And we hereby express our indignation and disgust at all attempts, wherever and by whomsoever made, to gloss over, palliate, or conceal* the savage enormity of the crime committed^ from any selfish motives of imaginary prudence or considerations of supposed good-policy. We acknowledge no such apprehensions to be allayed, we know of no such advantages to be obtained, as would justify or excuse such a course of proceeding* I £ Those attempts we know to be as abstfrtl and ineffectual, as they are heartless and ungenerous. >f Publicly or privately, j directly or indirectly, we will neither connive at, countenance, nor tolerate them. The truth cannot be hidden, nor are we willing it should be. We desire that the real truth be plainly declared ; we demand that impartial justice be unflinchingly executed.

But, were it possible to prevent the promulgation of the actual facts of the case, or to weaken the impression here, or elsewhere, which rtjust be conveyed by them of the ferocious character of the savages, who, in cold blood, massacred our friends and their asm. ja2vious-benefactors-|-f-Vere any advantages whatever to be secured by disguising dangers or slurring over atrocities — we emphatically declare that we would spurn the

idea of obtaining them at such a cost as the unjust depreciation of the dear and invaluable spirits that are gone — as the defamation of the memories of men* of some of whom it is no exaggeration to assert that, for intellectual range, moral elevation, and genial, unaffected kindheartedness, they would have done honour to any people of any age. ">) (Signed) C k A. Dillon, J.P. John Poynter 6. Duppa, J.P. Francis Jollie A. M'Donald, J.P. J. C.Boys D. Monro, J.P. F. Moline J. S. Tytler, J.P. W. E. Wilkinson Alfred Domett J. T. Smith/ I W. O. Caulley T. J. B. Sandford E. W. Stafford Samuel Parkinson C. Elliott John N. Beit W. L. Shepherd William Dartnall W. R. Walkinshaw James Stirling Charles Empson George Earl Donald Sinclair J. J. Imrie George M. Tytler Richard Mills Eugene Bellairs Daniel Moore John Kerr Joseph F. Wilson John Cooke Alfred Barnard R. R. Newcome Samuel Alder W. F. Hippisley v Joseph Fisher H. Redwood William Hough H. Redwood, jun. John S. Hawkins Joseph Ward Thomas M'Hugh Richard Wallis Thomas Renwick E. D. Sweet Charles Harley -"' A. Macshane T. N. Trower —Alfred Fell v, F. A. Saunders Robert Ross v William Sharp George F. Bush Thomas Musgrave D. Cooper G. W. Schroder Lewis Barnett Joseph Hoare John Anderson f. Otterson W. Henry Kater Alfred Saunders William Murray W. Jones Alexander Perry Charles Heaphy J. D. Macfarlane J. C. Drake W. Bishop A. W. Mackinnon v H. W. Burt Edward Green , D. Sclanders J. Cullingworth Robert B. Gee George Binns . Henry Carr James Elliott Henry Wray Thomas Marsden v'P. Graham v J. W. Barnicoat v . W. Harkness T. J. Thompson Robert Tod William Cullen ' John Kidson Cyrus Goulter v A. K. Wetherell Edward Coleman E. Wetherell T. K. Warburton John M'Artney William Moore John H. Cooper Thomas Fawcett William Stallard J. Swinton Spooner John Green Alfred Hill. John T. Bramwell