CATCHING A TARTAR.

Otago Witness, Issue 1205, 2 January 1875, Page 16

CATCHING A TARTAR.

We received the following telegram on Monday from our Auckland correspondent : — The New Zealand Herald states : — " It will be in the memory of our readers that Sir George Grey sent a petition to the Superintendent, urging him to put himself into communication with the late Governor, Sir J. Fergusson, on certain matters connected with the land fund, &c, which he (Sir G. Grey) considered of serious importance, and calling for instant action. His Honour approving of Sir George Grey's petition to himself, adopted it, and sent it on to Wellington as the petition of the Provincial Government. Thereupon Sir James Fergusson, it will also be remembered, declined to communicate through the Superintendent, but addressed a letter to Sir George Grey direct. This letter was, however, published in the newspapers before it reached Sir George, and he was thus well acquainted with its contents. It has come to our knowledge, upon authority on which we place implicit dependence, that on receiving the letter in the course of post, Sir George Grey at once sent it, unopened, to the Superintendent, requesting His Honour to return it with a copy of the letter under cover of which he then sent to His Honour. Sir James Fergusson, or rather his responsible advisers, evidently caught a Tartar when they sought to cast a slight upon an old Governor, whose official experience enabled him at once to <perceiye tne joint in their own armour, and give him the opportunity of retorting by returning unopened, but in perfect courtesy, *ta> Imr m tfry flattered typwpivep

they had made so great a coup that they could not refrain from publishing it prematurely in their own papers."