Untitled

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume XVII, Issue 1724, 8 February 1862, Page 3

We publish the following letter from A. Abraham, Esq., barrister, of Melbourne, to Go vernor Browne, in reference to a memorandum by tbe latter to F. jollie, Esq., Chairman of Committee of Private grievances, on the subject of Mr. Abraham's petition. Having at tlio time entered at some length into this question in connection with the Inquiry into Mr. Richmond's conduct with reference to tbe Waitara iand and tbe owners of original land orders entitled to select there, we do not feel called upon to revive the discussion, but we cannot refrain from expressing otir regret that Governor Browne should have resorted to the evasion of which Mr. Abraham's letter shews him to have been guilty :—- To Ills Excellency Colonel Goke Bbowne, C. 8., &c., &c. Sib, —My attention has been directed to a memorandum dated the 16th July, IS6I, addressed bv you to F. Jollie, Esq., Chairman of Committee on Private Grievances, wherein yon state that, “In a petition to the House of Representatives, dated 28th February, 1861, Mr. Abraham hastaken advantage of a private conversation with the Governor, assumed to have taken place early in the year 1859,” and you proceed to say “ The Governor has no record of any conversation with Mr. Abraham ; but is convinced that he never made any such statement as that attributed to him.” Permit me, Sir, to remind you that the two interviews I had with you on my visits from Victoria to New Zealand, (Christmas 1836, and January 1859) were by appointment, held in your official Chamber, and during official hours, and that the object of the first interview was expressly to induce your Excellency (through whom alone remonstrance could effectually be made) to make representations to the Home authorities so as to prevent the Act of 1850 from being left to its operation ; and on the second occasion for a similar purpose. and to stay the proclamation of the 2nd Act (IS58) in case it should receive tbe Royal Assent, for which, unlike its predecessor, it had been reserved.

IVhat fell from your Excellency on these occasions, and which I regret you cannot recollect, had, and could not but be known to have, a mostimpoitant influence on my own course of proceedings, and I distinctly announced my intention to prosecute my claims to the utmost; which is borne out by the Memorial I addressed and personally handed to your Excellency. I now beg distinctly to state that nothing which took place at these interviews and certainly nothing before or after, could justify the assumption on either side that the conversation was in tlie least degree of a private character. Announcing my intention to publish this communication in case I deem it necessary, I beg to subscribe myself Your obedient servant,

(Signed) Augustus B. Abraham. Stli October, 186 1 ;