CORRESPONDENCE.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume IV, 22 November 1845, Page 150

CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor op the Nelson Examiner.

Sir — I observe, in your paper of the 9th of August last, a letter from " Joseph Toms," addressed to myself, in which, after stating that he had found on his arrival at Nelson a prejudice existing against him as if he had been an

accomplice with Ranghiaiata and Rauparat a in the Wairau massacre, aiding and abetting t letn in it, merely because, in obedience to my request and Mr. E. Clarke's, he had given t lera a passage in his schooner across the Strain i, is the following sentence ; — "In vindication of myself from such an absurd imputation, and for the sake of my fan lily, I will feel obliged by you in reply stating the circumstances of the case as alluded to ab ove, viz., that Rauparaha and Ranghiaiata and t heir followers were put aboard of me by you and Mr. Clarke, having been detained by you for the purpose of attending your Court at Pori rua, and so prevented from crossing the Stiaits along with the rest of the tribe, who had ] deviously gone over to assert their territroial ] >roprietorship to the Wairau, by planting paitof it with potatoes." Your paper in which this letter appeared has only just reached me, and the same post brov ght me a printed copy of it (cut from your pa >er) from Mr. Toms, and I hasten to embrace the earliest opportunity, of the Victoria sailing for Nelson, of replying to it. Mr. Toms' extraordinary course of publ shing the letter in question, which he had evidently not then forwarded to me, compels me most reluctantly to answer it through the pu blic press ; for I cannot allow Mr. Toms' asser ion to remain one moment longer without receh ing my most unqualified contradiction. Rauparaha and Kanghiaiata attended my Court at Poriruain the early part of May, IE 43, and were examined in support of Mr. Toms' land claims, and of some other claimants, ai d I first heard of their intention to cross the Straits in Mr. Toms's chooner from Mr. Toms himself, when I used all the influence in my po tver to prevent their going until after the 19th of the following June, when my Court "was advertised to close at Wellington ; after which date I offered to meet them on the other side of the Straits. Mr. Toms afterwards informed me that their tribe had already gone across, and that t ley were determined to follow, but that they j romised to remain with him, and not to \isit Wairau until I met them there. I also receiv ed, personally, an assurance from them to the sz me effect, through my interpreter Mr. Meurant, \ rho had also previously used every means in 'his power to induce them not to go. I need scarcely add that I never did request Mr. Toms to take the chiefs across the Straits in his schooner; and as to my "putting them aboard," I never saw them embark, or knew when they sailed. I remain, sir, yours, &c, Auckland, Oct. 30. William Spain.