Page 2 Advertisements Column 1

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XII, Issue 826, 4 February 1868, Page 2

[advertisement .] Taita, Wellington, Jan. 25, 1868. TO THE EDITOR OF THE WANGANUI CHRONICLE. Sir, —I trust your readers will pardon me for requesting you to publish the following letter, with enclosure, as an advertisement m your paper. Last year we were all of us informed by the Wellington Independent and Wanganui Times that the Manawatu purchase was un fait accompli. I wrote several letters upon the subject which were published in the New Zealand Advertiser. The Wellington Independent did me the honor of replying to my first letter, but finding that I was too much for him he dropped the subject, and published instead two abusive leading articles, containing extracts from Sir George Grey’s despatches, written in 1847- I have lately published a pamphlet upon the Manawatu purchase ; I have sent copies to the Governor, to the Ministers, and to every member of both Houses of the Assembly ; I have s.nt a copy to each of the newspapers, and have distributed it very generally in this country. I have also sent copies to influential men in England, and have sent it to a firm of booksellers, requesting them to republish it for sale in London. If I have written “ absurd calumnies,” they are, at least not “ secret calumnies.” The Wanganui Times reviewed my pamphlet in a leader, to which 1 replied ; my letter was published accompanied by the usual editorial blessing. A copy of the Wanganui Times , dated the 24th ult., containing an article (communicated) upon my pamphlet having been sent to me, evidently a challenge from the writer. I sent a reply —my latter was dated 7th inst. The editor *on the 21st inst. not only declines to publish my letter but he publishes an extract from it which is mere chaff, and grounds upon that an absurd leading article in which is the following : “ There is a Missionary advocate who values the confidence of his fellow men only to the extent that he could make a marketable commodity of it ! who but the most arrant knave would entertain the idea of selling the confidence of his fellow men, and who but the must consummate fool would publish the fact if he did entertain the idea.” ** * The idea of Church Missionaries openly and publicly estimating or speculating upon the market value of any human confidence reposed in them is to horrible even for the worst time of rebellion, degrading fanaticisms, brutal murder and cannibalism.” T sent some three shillings worth of stamps to the editor, and requested him to send me copies of his paper. He retained the stamps but not till late this evening did I receive any copies of. his paper, which were purchased in Wellington. Fancy being a victim to the respect and “ confidence” of such a man as t-iat! Sir, the Wellington Independent and Wanganui Times readily admit into their columns foul abuse of the Maoris and Church Missionaries. They were but lately to be seen dressed in their editorial war paint, dancing the war dance over Colonel Weare, though that gentleman had apologised and withdrawn his letters, which were private, and would never have been pub lished, had Sir G. Grey not disobeyed his master’s instructions- -but they appear to think discretion the better part valour, now they have to deal with a “Native of New Zealan l.” Sir, the editor says—“ Instead of a reply to the various points discussed in our article, Mr Williams wrote a long tirade about the Waitara and the Manawatu.” I beg to say that in my two letters 1 did reply to the articles in question, whereas the two articles so far from being replies to my pamphlet were “long tirades” about the Waitara, the Maoris and the ‘ ‘ British Societies,” a fact to which I called the editor’s attention in my first letter as well as in the enclosed. Sir, the editor says—“ Does Mr Williams wish to have revived and extensively circulated those oft repeated and well substantiated stories when hebioadly suggests,” &c. If the editor means all the absurd stories about the late Archdeacon Henry Williams I beg to tell him that he has my leave to publish anything and everything that he pleases. That brave and good man is now where the wicked, even wicked editors of newspapers, cease from troubling. I beg to