THE CHILDREN OF THE LATE COLONEL FADDY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 253, 2 December 1876, Page 18

THE CHILDREN OF THE LATE COLONEL FADDY.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW ZEALAND MAIL. Sir, —The Hon. Colonel Whitmore forwarded to me a few days ago an extract from the New Zealand Times respecting the sons of the late Colonel Faddy, which is so full of inaccuracies that I hope you will permit me to endeavor to put you in possession of the facts. £ knew nothing of Colonel Faddy previously to his arrival at Napier. I saw him the day he landed with his two boys, half starved and wretched. A few weeks after I was asked to see him at the house of a Mrs. Palin, where I ascertained he was lodged and boarded at the expense of Colonel Whitmore. He and his children remained with Mrs. Palin until she informed me she could keep him no longer. I then procured an admission ticket for him to the Provincial Hospital, where, after a short illness, he died, not of a broken heart, but of senile -debility and bronchitis. Dying, as he did friendless and penniless in the public hospital, he was of course only entitled to the funeral of a pauper. A few friends, however, contributed funds to give him a funeral as befitting his rank and position, as was possible in a little town like Napier. After his death I was, considering my limited acquaintance, somewhat surprised to find myself named as one of his executors, an office I only consented to fill upon the consideration that I ought not to cast away the two orpheau boys. They were at that time Jiving with Mrs. Palin, and as she informed me that the late colonel had when dying begged her not to part with them, I consented to her keeping them until such time as I could communicate with the family in Ireland. I accordingly addressed two letters, one to General Faddy, the late colonel’s father, and the other to the family agent in London, asking instructions about the boys, and detailing the circumstances of his death and burial, and their position. The former has simply ignored the communication ; the latter wrote to say that after enquiry lie found the family would have nothing to do with the boys, and begged me not to send them Home, as if I did they would starve. Colonel Whitmore opened communication with General Faddy through the Rev. Canon Nesbit, of London. The Gsneral replied to the Canon’s letter, thanking Colonel Whitmore and “the gentleman who so kindly arranged such an honorable funeral for my late son, utterly ignoring the children, and eventually offering £5 towards a tombstone, or £lo'if an inscription, which he dictates, is affixed on it, and a tablet erected in the church !

Whilst we were awaiting replies from England, Mrs. Palin suddenly, and as she admits without giving any notice, left for Wellington, taking with her the two boys, on the ground that as she had befriended them so long, she could not part with them now. As soon as I heard from England, I acquainted Mrs. Palin with the result of my appeal, whereupon she wrote to me saying that if something were not done speedily to take the two boys off her hands she should be compelled to hand them over to the police. Upon receipt of this letter, and knowing well that Mrs. Palin was not in a position to maintain the children without assistance, I, through the influence of Colonel Whitmore and Captain Russell, procured an order for their admission to the training ship at Auckland; but almost immediately after the Hon. G. McLean had signed the order, Captain Russell telegraphed to me, “Palin will not give up boys.” From the arrival of this telegram I heard nothing of the Faddys until the sensational paragraph from your paper was forwarded to me. May I take the liberty of asking of you two favors. One is, kindly to correct the statements made by you before about Colonel Faddy and his sons; and the other is, when you have sensational bits of gossip offered for insertion in your paper, to withhold them until you have ascertained their correctness or falsity.—l am, &c., W. J. Spencer. Napier, Nov. 23.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW ZEALAND MAIL. Sir, —A local published by you recently has been sent to me which is likely to lead to misconceptions. I therefore write to correct inaccuracies which it contains. Colonel Faddy, late Royal Artillery, was a year ago in so miserable a state of poverty and destitution in London as to be covered with sores and vermin from head to foot, and to be compelled to sleep on doorsteps or the baskets of Covent Garden. From this pitiable state I rescued him, feeding and clothing him, giving him a little money and collecting more, which I placed in the hands of Canon Nisbet, Rector of St. Giles, for his use. Further than this, I wrote to his father, and induced him in spite of his well-grounded resentment to make him a weekly allowance of 50s. Colonel Faddy called on my wife a day or two befoi-e I left for New Zealand, and expressed his warm gratitude for my kindness, and said he was now fairly off my hands. Colonel Faddy in the days of his prosperity had served in the same colony with me, and for a year at the same station, where he kept open house, and entertained liberally. But he was so far from being a friend of mine that I never even crossed his threshold in my life. Nothing but absolute regret to see him so

much reduced induced me to help him, and I confess I was really relieved when I heard all had ended satisfactorily.

Judge my astonishment and annoyance when very much improved in health and appearance, Colonel Faddy appeared one day in New Zealand at Napier, and made his way to my residence. He had come out quite penniless, and asked me to help him again. His mind seemed to have given way under the strain his former life and his wounds had put on it, and it was evident it would be very difficult to find any employment for. him. Under these circumstances, I communicated with the Commissioner of Police, who arranged that he should be boarded with a Mrs. Palin for 40s. a -week; and I agreed that for a few weeks 1 would pay this sum for him. I did so, and after I had paid some £B, Colonel Faddy fell ill and went to hospital, where he died in my presence, apparently worn out in body and mind. He left a will naming ns guardians to his two children Dr. Spencer and Mr. Bell, law clerk, both of Napiei-. We buried him as a soldier-, the Napier Artillei-y Volunteex-s, ixnder Lieutenant Routledge, following him to the grave, the coffin being carried on a gun-carriage, and several of our citizens attending. We subscribed enough to make the funeral in all respects befitting the unquestionable military distinction of the officer who was gone, whose private life we hoped would be excused by Him who alone has the right to judge on the ground of the clouded intellect which certainly x-endered poor Faddy hardly responsible for all his acts. I conclude my remarks here, and send this letter to Dr. Spencei-, who will know how to l-eply to the matters affecting the children whom Mrs. Palin, to the regret of everybody who knows hei*, has chosen to carry off and to pi-event going, both of them, to the Auckland training ship, to which the Hon. G. McLean had ordered their admission.—l am, &c., G. y. Whitmore. Napier, 15th November.