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Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3204, 20 May 1871, Page 2

Our morning contemporary takes our Wairarapa correspondent to task for a statement in his last letter, in which he says, " that except through the newspapers, the address and testimonial to Dr Featherston have not been seen or heard of in this part of the country," and for drawing the very obvious conclusion that the affair has been mismanaged. Our contemporary then gives us the details of the arrangements made to obtain signatures to the address and subscribers to the testimonial throughout the province, from which we learn that no fewer than eighteen gentlemen resident in the Wairarapa were urged to give every possible publicity to the address and testimonial. From this he argues that the statement of our corre& spondent turns out to be " a simple fabrication of the brain of a misinformed gentleman." This deduction can only be sustained by the fact that these eighteen gentlemen did their duty. The matter admits of a very simple solution. The eighteen gentlemen either did their duty by an active canvass of the district, by personally bringing both the address and the subscription lists before every resident of the district, or by some other means equally effectual ; or they looked upon the duty as merely formal, and put their subscription books and addresses in their desks without further troubling themselves about the matter. We regret that our contemporary should have called attention to the matter at all, as any explanations and information that maybe drawn out by these remarks will, we fear, not redound much to the energy of either the Wellington committee or the large number of deputies they ap- j pointed throughout the province. We all know what manner of man our late Superintendent is, and the peculiar esteem in which he is held by a majority of the settlers of the province. We say " peculiar," because it is well known that a great deal of the extraordinary confidence with which he was so long honored was due as much to his private as political character. Looking at these facts, we must either hold with our Wairarapa correspondent in his reflections upon the committee, 01 admit what we would be very loth to do, namely, that the people of Wellington province did not join, as they ought to have done, in paying a farewell tribute of respect to Dr. Featherston. Unless the committee can show by their subscription lists, and the signatures to the testimonial, that they have been both active anJ successful, we think our correspondent's strictures on thoir management are not altogether without foundation. The committee is composed of gentlemen for whom we entertain the greatest respect, and whose leal-hearted attachment to Dr. Featherston must be now one of their proudest and most cherished memories. But is it not barely possible that in their own leave-takings of their honored friend, and in the recollections and associations, which every day recalled more vividly as his departure approached, they may have failed in making some necessary arrangements for securing that the address and the testimonial should receive such

a number of subscriptions as would fairly represent Wellington's regard for him who for so many years stood forth as Wellington's truest friend—etprcssidium et dulce decus ? If our correspondent's remarks should meet the eyes of any settler who, from any cause whatever, has not had an opportunity of subscribing, or if they should suggest to members of any committee the possible defectiveness of their arrangements, we shall not regret their insertion. It is never too late to mend. The subscription lists are still open, and signatures to the address can still be appended. We need scarcely add that we insert all our correspondent's letters regarding the wants and wishes of the Wairarapa settlers whether they accord or not with our own views ; and we must add, in justice to him, that they are singularly free from the vices too frequently chargeable against similar communications, and, in not a few instances, have been of great service to the district.