MOTUEKA.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XVII, Issue 78, 29 September 1858, Page 2

MOTUEKA.

[from oub correspondent.]

I have by chance lighted upon a letter in the Colonist, taking me to task for the remarks I lately sent you. It is made up of two parts, personal abuse and opposing statements. To the first I answer nothing ; to the second what follows : — Being in a grumbling mood, I found fault with what I thought deserved it, and of course cannot object to having a few holes picked in my own coat. First my letter was not written to discredit the Superintendent ; ho came in for his share certainly, and I think he deserved it ; for ' though I like him personally, and more than that, respect him, as a very worthy man in private life, yet his friends made as great a mistake in setting him up as Superintendent, as if they had set him up as a niller, or ironmonger, or shoemaker ; and I have as much right to find fault with his work, as if he sold me unwholesome flour, or bad tools, or offered me boots which pinched my toes, or came in pieces after a week's wear; in fact mote, because I can qiiarrei with my bread and butter and refuse to eat it, and 1 can change my shoemaker if ha persists in trying to make a cripple of me; but my Superintendent if crammed down my throat whether I like it or not and ho can go on botching his work and crippling al. our movements to the end of his term; whilst oui only means of relieving ourselves is through the press. But I did not blame him for allowing half a dozei |of wretched Maori btalliona to be running at large . [ <md I did not accuse him of being one of the drunk j ards who rang us all up iv the middle of the night ' though I think we might have a policeman wh'. should look out for and put a stop to whatever th law forbids, without waiting till he is called upon to di his duty ; and I think that whoever granted our publi i-ans' midnight licenses was guilty of encouraging tippling and disorder. But I did blame him for tin jefcty, and for receiving memorials which he took no

notice of afterwards. Well, what are the facts ? Why, in my opinion, a little mor«j damaging than report made them out. In the first year of his reign, our Superintendent puts up a jetty for us, about 300 feet long, I should think ; I have not measured it, though I suppose I shall be told I ought to have done it, and given you the odd feet and inches ; but, however that may be, we were pleased enough with it, we people of Motueka. But we soon found out that it looked -very i pretty, and was not of much uso except to frighten mammas whose naughty children would run out upon it and poke their little hcad3 under tho railing. We are almost always still obliged to be carted off to the steamer and carted in again, a good bit further down the beach. Our Superintendent comes over to determine how tho money which the Council voted shall be laid out, and what dops he do ? He determines that the jetty shall be made 300 feet longer, which will leave us almost as liable to cartastroph.es as ever j and he cuts off a foot at one end and two feet anda-halfat the other of our present pier, and tells them to continue the same slope for 300 feet further in the new part. Now in the name of all that ia wonderful, what is this for ? Are they going to treat us as they once did at the Surrey Zoological Gardens, with a " Russian Mountain," or "rush and mounting," as the boys called it, and have a corresponding rise on the otiier side ? Or, do they mean to have a check and turnover at the bottom, and shoot us, as they do rubbish on railroads, neck and heels into the boats below ? Pray enlighten us, Mr. Editor, and let us know ; there are so many strange discoveries now-a-days. I never saw or heard of a sloping pier before, to ba sure, and it may help in getting the goods down ; but how about getting them up again ? Would it not be as well to balance it in the middle, so that you could tilt up which end you liked, like a see-saw ? lam not much of a hand at hydraulics or hydropathics, or any other hydras ; but does it not strike you that if the water comes into the Doctor's Creek on a level, as I think it does, though perhaps I ought to have made quite sure of this, too, being a fact, before I said anything about it ; does it not strike you, 1 say, that if one end is only just as high out of water as it ought to be, that the other [ end must be wrong somehow, either too high or too ' low by four or five feet ? But there is one comfort, if it does not answer, the Executives can come over I again next year and alter it again, turn it end for end perhaps, or topside t'otherway. But I must not forget my " Lover of Truth," with his firstly, secondly, and thirdly. Firstly, I have a perfect recollection of a memorial signed, amongst others, by our Justices, asking the Superintendent to put Motueka under some ordinance or other, proclaiming it, I think it was called, by which cattle that went about treading in our ditches and breaking our fences, might be taken up and put in prison — in the pound I mean, for I signed it myself, and understood it was generally signed by those interested. Secondly, I did not present it myself, but always understood it had been forwarded to its address. And thirdly, months afterwards, on inquiry, was told that no answer had been received, and heard the observations I have quoted. I also recollect hearing that a counter-memorial had been got up and sent also.

My friend's questions read something like the Irishman's defence, when accused of borrowing and breaking a looking-glass. First, he had returned it safe; second, it waa broken when he borrowed it; and third, he had never borrowed it at all.