New Zealand Mail. PUBLISHED DAILY SATURDAY, JULY 29, 1876.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 245, 29 July 1876, Page 12

New Zealand Mail. PUBLISHED DAILY SATURDAY, JULY 29, 1876.

. ♦- The New Zealand Cross formed the subject of a discussion in the Legislative Council on Thursday. Conceivingthatsome previous remarks of Colonel Whitmore's reflected in some manner on Dr. Featherston, the Hon. Dr. Menzies, in making a motion for the production of a return, took Colonel Whitmore to task for these remarks. The lion, gentleman spoke with considerable feeling, and was evidently sympathised with by Councilors on all sides. The Hon. Colonel Whitmore strongly disclaimed any intention of in any way disparaging the eminent services of the gentleman for whom they and the country so sincerely mourned. He had wished to enforce attention to the fact that the New Zealand Cross should not be granted for retrospective services, and it was simply owincr to Dr. Featherston's being the first °to be decorated for retrospective services that he had been alluded to. Many gallant actions had been performed during the Crimean war, before the Victoria Cross had been instituted, but m no case had the distinction been conferred for services rendered prior to that decoration having been instituted. No one more highly appreciated the high and chivalrous character of Dr. Featherston than did Colonel Whitmore, in. illustration of which he referred to a passage in the deceased gentleman's career; when despite his being almost disabled from sickness he had urged Colonel Whitmore to permit him to accompany him into tne field Dr. Menzies accepted the explanation' of Colonel Whitmore, and the matter in so far as it concerned the memory of the late Agent-General dropped. During the debate Colonel Brett mentioned that part of the duty of a Commission on which he had served had been to wade through a mass of correspondence two or three feet thick, the principal portion of which was found to consist of applications from parties who considered themselves entitled to tne New Zealand Cross, and Captain Fraser announced his intention at a future time to ask how it came about that a person against whom a Commission had reported had since been decorated.