MR. CRACROFT WILSON'S INDIAN ANTECEDENTS.

Wellington Independent, Volume XVIII, Issue 1854, 11 April 1863, Page 7

MR. CRACROFT WILSON'S INDIAN ANTECEDENTS.

[A few weeks ago there was published in the Wellington Independent, an article giving a quotation from an Indian paper (the Poona Observer) mentioning some particulars of how a "Mr Wilson " svho was formerly a Magistrate and Collector there, used to act towards tbe natives. There was little doubt but that it had reference to Mr Cracroft Wilson, now M. H. R. for Christchurch, who has broached what many , persons consider to be a harsh and sanguinary j policy towards the maorics, founded on his experience with Asiatic tribes in India. This article was copied into the Press, published at Christchuich, the city which Mi Wilson at present represents in the General Assembly of New Zealand. We extract, below, so much of a letter which Mr Wilson has written to the Press as relates to the subject, and the reply of that journal, and in doing so, we might rest satisfied if it were not incumbent on us to say that Mr Fox bad nothing whatever to do in the matter— Mr Fox's recent letter explaining the very limited newspaper use to which his pen has been put for some years, and its total cessation from that kind of work for some months past, will, we presume, be deemed conclusive ou that poinf. We need scarcely add that Mr Wilson's insinuation that Mr Fox is tbe proprietor of this journal is entirely unfounded. Our motive for publishiug the extract from the Poona Observer, was very near akin to that which induced the Press to le-copy it. We did not publish it with even the harmless motive of affording fuel for a future " roasting," but mainly to show that however highly Mr Wilson thought of the manner in which be had acted the part of" the father of his people," his complacency was not shared in by the children themselves , and that while he lauded the efficiency of his paternal rule, it was only fair, that those over whom that fatheriy sway had been exercised, should have the oppoitunity of saying how they liked it. In oue word, it was to our mind, the quietest and easiest way of knocking on the head, Mr Wilson's pretentious claims to^be considered an authority on questions affecting tbe government of the native race, and of completely shutting him up for the future. It is necessary to understand clearly what follows, that we should here quote the obnoxious paragraph from the Poona Observer of the loth November last.

" While alluding to Mr. Wilson, (tho Rt Hon James Wilson, the Indian financier) we will mention a circumstance connected with him, which we believe is not generally known. In the Bengal presidency there was formally a member of the Civil Service employed as a collector and Magistrate of the same name, who retired and went to New Zealand, with a very bad reputation among the natives for tyranny. On one occasion a large number of persons had collected together to present a petition to the Lieutenant Governor complaining of the Magistrates proceedings; and this wary officer had them all put in prison until the Lord Saheb had come and gone. His name was perfectly well known in the Upper Provinces ; and when his Righ Honorable namesake was sent to India, there was a common belief that it was the same person Bent out to average the mutiny, by heavy taxation of the natives."

The following letter and article are from the Canterbury Press of 21st March. Ed. W. I.] To James Edwaro FitzGebald, Esq., Member of the House of Representatives, member of the Provincial Counoil, Justice of the Peace, Sole Editor and Proprietor of the « Press' Newspaper, Christchurch. Sib— l beg to offer you my thanks for having published in your newspaper an article, from the ' Wellington Independent,* entitled the "Victim of a name," containing an extract from a paper tyled the ' Poona Observer.' Before I read the

article in question in the ' Press,' I was not aware that the Cantonment of Poonah supported a newspaper; and as I never see the ' Wellington Independent,' the said article, as far as I am concerned , would have *' blushed unseen," had it not been for your kind interference. I again offer you my thanks for having brought tho article to my notice. I can easily understand why the ' Wellington >: Independent' should publish such an article. It is said that Mr Fox is the proprietor of that paper, and it is no secret that my poor services would never have been at the disposal of the people of . Canterbury, if it had not been for the speeches of Mr Fox, as published in the public prints of 1800. There has been but little love lost between Mr Fox and myself since 1 have had the honor of a seat in the General Assembly, and well knowing how very scrupulous Mr Fox is, of course I am prepared to face all the filth, which, as proprietor of a newspaper, he may from time to time, fling at my devoted head. But why you should have -.bought it necessary to republish in the very City which I represent* in the General Assembly, a libel, which you yourself, ignorant as you are of tire British Empire in India, must know to be palpably malicious and false, I have yet to learn. [The remainder of the letter is on subjects foreign to the present purpose.] I am* Sir, tKrc , J. Ciucroft Wilson, C.B. Cashmere, March 1 6th, 18G3. , '