WAITARA.

Colonist, Volume VI, Issue 625, 20 October 1863, Page 3

WAITARA.

(From the Wellington Independent, Oct. 6.J

Among the subjects of discussion in the General Assembly, will of course be the surrender of the Waitara. We are not surprised that Mr. Dillon Bell, the reputed author of " Governor Browne's notes" on the purchase of 1860, should find it convenient to be absent at Melbourne. The author of the "notes" defending Governor Grey's surrender, would, indeed, have been a treat for the curious. Many of our readers may have forgotten much that relates to the old transactions of 1860. We are not sorry to have the opportunity of reprinting from a late Nelson Colonist, an excellent article on some points of the subject. We confess Mr. Richmond's private correspondence with Mr. Parris, substituted for official communications, always struck us as one of the most suspicious features of the case. Governor Browne's admirers were never tired of parading him as the type of a fine old English gentleman, the very soul of chivalry, <fee. It certainly is a curious thing that he should not have smelt a rat when Mr. Eichmond requested him to allow the official correspondence to be laid aside, and Mr. Parris to be instructed "privately." The lawyers say that " secrecy is a badge of fraud," and it is a maxim which on this occasion might well have occurred to his Excellency Governor Browne. The lawyer, however, was too deep for him, and chivalry went to the wall. [The Independent then copies the article entitled " Conduct of Ministers as the cause of the late War," which appeared in the Colonist of August 28th, in reply to the unfortunate challenge of our local contemporary to examine the Blue Book containing the report of the select committee on the charge against Mr. W. C. Eichmond, respecting his share of the Waitara business, a report which, were we in Mr. Eichmond's place, we should gladly see expunged from all documents, public and private, and consigned to forgetfulness.]