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Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3118, 8 February 1871, Page 2

(TO THB BDITOE OF THB INDEPENDENT.) Sib,— l see that the " Evening Post," in its issue of this evening, quotes a letter written by me to Mr Barton, editor of the " Otago Daily Times," in December, 1869, as proving that your contradiction of it " rumor" (?) published in the "Evening Post" on Saturday last was incorrect. You were quite justified in that contradiction, for as will bn soen by a reference to the extract fromjny letter, the arrangement spoken of was only a "proposed arrangement." It never went any further than a proposal, but dropped through simply because it was not found convenient to carry it out, and I do not remember to have even mentioned the matter to the proprietor of the Independent. The proposed arrangement was a simple matter of business, which any government or any paper might fairly enter into, and which I have certainly no wish to repudiate or oause to be ashamed of. At the end of the year 1866 — the memorable time of Kemp and Topia's expedition — news from Auckland tias looked for with grout anxioty. Tho Government was anxious to obtain the latest information from every source at the earliest possible moment. So was I as editor of the Independent. Tho Government had no regular agent to transmit to them a summary of Auckland newß on the departure of a vessel to Napier. The Independent was prepared to employ one. I therefore proposed to the Government an arrangement mutually beneficial, viz., that the Independent should find the news, and that the Government should find tno means of its transmission. By such an arrangement tho Government would Bave tho cost of an agent, and yet be placed in the possession of the latest Auckland news at the earliest moment, and the Independent would save the wire charge for those particular messages. I see that the words of my letter to Mr Barton quoted by tho " Post" do imply that the remission of the telegraph charges extended to a free use of the wires via Napier to Auckland. Such a proposal waß never made, and was never intended by me ; and I cannot explain how such an error should have crept into my letter. The remission of charges was only intended to apply to such messages as the Auckland summary, in whioh the Government was equally interested with the Independent. At tho same time that I send you this explanation, I cannot help expressing my astonishment that a letter written by me a year ago to a gentlemin in Mr Bartou's posi* tion, and bearing evidence prima facie of being intended to be private, should be allowed to be made use of by Mr Gillon, in whose hands I am aware this and others have been placed for an entirely different purpose. I feel quite sure that Mr Barton would not have sanctioned its perversion to subserve the purposes of a rancorous political partizan on the eve of a contested election. I shall, however, communicate with Mr Barton on the subject, and inform you of the result. — I am, &o, A. Foiiett Haloombb.