THE LATE SUPERINTENDENT AND THE

Colonist, Volume VIII, Issue 803, 7 July 1865, Page 3

THE LATE SUPERINTENDENT AND THE

WAIRAU MAISACRE MONUMEFT

T» the Editor »f The Colonist,

Respecteb Vbibnw, —The letter of J. W. Barnico&t which appeared in thy Friday's issue, would have beea more honorable to him if hit had been More just to the dead. He knew that the cause af nay having written to thee was the statement made in the Nelson Examiner^ in pursuance of its former steadfast misrepresentation of tin late Supeiiuteadenf, that no step was taken in the matter of the Memorial, antil " Mr. Barnicoat addressed the Saperintendent of Marlborough to learn whether he would sanction the removal ef what, human bones could be found an the site of the graves at Massacre Hill." Now, Mr. Barnicoat did nothing of the kind, and he should have said so, instead of taking part with those who systematically blacken the memory of one of whom J. W. Barnicoat on the hustings said, rightly or wrongly, that he "shared largely in his confidence." The letter to the Superintendent of Marlborough was written by the late Superintendent of Nelson, and all that was done afterwards was the sending of the letter written by Alfred Greenfield on receipt of the reply of the Superintendent of Marlborough to J. P. Robinson's letter. This letter of Alfred Greenfields addressed to the friends of the slain men, was a mere matter-of-course proceeding ; and although J. W. Barnicoat appears to take credit t» himself because the Chief Clerk in the asual formal manner said that he wrote by "direction of the Acting-Superintendent," it is well known that J. W. Barnicoat never moved in the matter until that reply was receiv d, and then his only movement was the letter which Alfred Greenfield himself wrote, and which partakes of (he ordinary business course that the .newest clerk would not have omitted, anl less than which he could not have dune. Further misrepresentations having appeared in the Nelson Examiner, after the publication of my letter to thee, Alfred Greenfield wrote a letter lo th« Examiner, of which the following is a copy :— " To the Editor of the Nelson Examiner.

"Sir, —In your leading article of the 20th insf., you erroneously stated thai no steps were taken to give effect to the resolution of the Provincial Council relative to the Wairau monument, until the Speaker of the Council was called upon to net temporarily as Superintendent; and,, when taxed with your error, you state, in your leader of this morning's issue, that, "before writing the article in question, we had .made inquiry whether anything had been done by the Government to cany the resolution of the Council into effect, and were misled by the information received."

1" Now, Sir, as I am the individu <1 to whom your reporter, Mr. Ilihhle, applied, I must distinclv deny the statement, a<3 I never mentioned the names of either the late Superintendent, the Ac ing Siipeiintendent, or the present Superintendent, to Mr. Hibble, but merely informed him that a letter had been written to the Superintendent of Mai Iborough for permission to carry out the wishes of the meinorialis'B by removing the remains of ihuse who fell at the Wairau Massacre to Nelson, to In: buried in one grave; that (he Superintendent of Marlborough lukl replied, declining to consent i;> the removal; and that, in consequence of that refusal, 1 had written to Mr. [lowaid, one of ihe memorialists, asking him to confer with the others, and reconsider the question of ivniovuig the remains, and to that letter no reply had been received. " I have, &c, " ALFRED GREENFIELD. "Nelson, June 29."

In a note attached to that, letter the Elitorof the Examiner says, "Mr. Greenfield is mistakes) in supposing that when we spoke, of having; been misled, we intended to imply that he was the person who had misled us" But I find in thn Examiner's leading article of tho previous Thursday, a statement which saith, '"Like ourselves, possibly, Mr. Sauudt'is may have hi en misled by the information given him," clearly implying that both the Examiner and the present Superintendent had obtained their information from the same source, that is to say from tho records of the Government office, which after all showed that no letter had been written by J. W. Bamicoaf, who at the very most did nothing more than sanction the most common piece of official routine.

What I should have been very pleased to see would have been an acknowledgemont by J. W. Barnicoat, that there had been unjust statements made against the late Superintendent in tin's matter; which ackoowledgeajent lie could easily have given while taking all the credit that such work merited for " giving instructions" to the Chief Clerk. I am. Thyi incero Friend, I. M. HILL. Nelson, 7 Mo. 3rd., 1865.