TO THE EDITOR OF THE NELSON EXAMINER.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 103, 24 February 1844, Page 409

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NELSON EXAMINER.

Sir — I beg to submit a remark or two in reference to your last week's leading article, on the subject of Governor Fitzroy's declarations respecting the Wairau massacre. Though no admirer of his Excellency's sentiments, or conduct in that respect, and even to a certain extent acquiescing in the argumentative justice of the article under notice, I for one should be sorry io have it considered as a fair exponent of the feeling of this community upon the matter to which it relates. Expressions are used, and a tone of declamation adopted, which I must, in common with many of your readers, most decidedly deprecate. They appear to me neither respectful nor fair to the Governor, and their tendency I consul must inevitably be to widen the breach between him and the settlement, and likewise unnecessarily to estrange from us many here whose views assimilate to those of his Excellency, and whose friendly concurrence in the future proceedings of the settlement one would not lightly forego. At any rate, violent language at the present stage of things, or indeed at any time, can assuredly answer no good end. Either the cause itself is good and capable of being maintained on its own independent merits — in which case all intemperate defence of it is not only, as Bob Acres • would say, " so much good passion wasted," but positively mischievous — or it is rotten and worthless, in which case such a course can only hasten its demolition. Besides, if nothing else, good policy requires that our animadversions upon the conduct of a man in the Governor's station, and of the Governor's character, whether appearing in the shape of newspaper strictures or authenticated public documents, should be couched in respectful and conciliatory language. Such, under any circumstances of diflerence that may arise with him, his office as the Queen's representative entitles his Excellency to demand ; and such, most certainly, if we bs but wise, and consult the true interests of the settlement, he will receive from us. I must alto take this opportunity of dissenting from -the representations of the same article as to the helplessness of the settlement upon the questions now in agitation amongst us. I would not say " Peace, peace, when there is no peace," nor, as some would, smother my real disquietude from any consideration of the prejudice our home prospects might thereby sustain; hut, at the same time, I cannot at all allow that we are so absolutely without resources, so completely beaten and powerless, as you state. Our friends in England, to whom you appeal, may certainly be of essential service to us in pressing the dangers and necessities of our condition upon the attention of the Home Government ; but nothing that I am aware of has yet occurred here to convince me that our case is, in our own hands, a desperate one. 1 rely upon the justice and reasonableness of our claims for their eventual acknowledgment and success, let who will oppose them; but it obviously must depend very much upon ourselves whether our progress to such a result shall be tardy and embarrassed or easy and certain — whether it shall be arrested at every step by party dissensions and the wounded pride of Government officials, or smoothed and expedited by their friendly cooperation and goodwill. Let it not.be supposed that I would advocate anything like servility in our communications with his Excellency. Far from it.' I would have the settlement, and you as their organ, always freely and firmly speak out our sentiments, and not " With bated breath and whitpering* hnmblenew " supplicate the Governor, like slaves their master. Let him know, if you will, without any j^adyiem^Bfr equivocation, that whilst we give Tim every credit for his intentions resjweting the settlement of the land claims and the punishment of future native aggressions, we think his conduct and declarations relative to the Wairau massacre hasty and ill-advised ; that we consider he has prejudged the whole question ; that we think he acted arbitrarily and unwisely in the dismissal of our magistrates (for it was tantamount to that); and that his refusal to institute

a judicial inquiry appears- to us most unsatisfactory and reprehensible, and probably, if persisted in (which I believe it cannot be), will involve us all in one common ruin.. Upon these and all other matters of paramount public prin1 ciple, let there be no concealment of opinion, no dereliction of public duty ; but, at the same time, with the "foriiter in re " let there always be mixed the " suaviter in modo." Don't rush into hostility with a man on all points because he happens to differ with you on one. Don't declaim upon an isolated expression, dropped unadvisedly and with perhaps another application to that affixed to it. Give the Governor, at any rate, a fair trial, testing his deeds as well as his words. Then, if I mistake ndt, we shall stand some chance of a better understanding ; at all eveDts, we shall have done our part towards it, and may safely commit the result to higher keeping. I am, sir, Your obedient servant, Nelson, Feb. 23. % Fiat Justitia. [Our correspondent Has misunderstood us, if he supposes that we have any desire to rush into hostility with the Governor on all points because we differ with him on one, or that we are at all disinclined to give him a fair trial. Expressions used by public men on important public matters may surely be taken as an index of their opinions on such matters with perfect fairness. And on the question at issue between the Governor and the settlement, his Excellency's opinion has been expressed in such unmistakeable language, that to patiently wait for the development of the policy which would naturally proceed, from it, would, in our opinion, be a virtual abandonment of the cause. Has it never occurred to our correspondent that this question of trespass may have been mooted for the purpose of supporting an otherwise untenable opinion? Government has uniformly.declared the conduct of the magistrates at Wairau to have been illegal, and now we have this doctrine of general trespass advanced to make it so. Conscientiously believing that if this be allowed to pass unquestioned, it will soon be considered an established fact, we have done our best to combat so pernicious a doctrine. This the" gentlemen who have been so active in getting up the protest appear to have overlooked, or else to have forgotten that their signatures are attached to a public document, from which the following extract is quoted : — " 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. * * * Were 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." The Editor.]