The poor old Church! Never was there an honester, a more faithful or a more useful servant. I may say that it was a good servant of all work. It could cleverly turn its hand to anything. Its sacred—its proper—work was on Sunday, but from Monday to Saturday it held itself ready for any service. It was a schoolroom. It was a public lecture room. It was the humble servant of the horticultural society. With patriotic zeal it accommodated the Provincial Council. It lent itself to many a concert, to many a musical party; and then it was without pride, and it had no ambition. From the highest to the lowest it was equally at the command of all.

It was possessed of at least one great quality that should not be left untold—it utterly disdained a mercenary spirit. It never would work for wages, and it was this great quality that hastened its fall. Adversity came, and so soon as its last trials began, they came thick and fast The first trial was indeed hard to bear—our congregation turned its back on it for ever. A handsome new church rose under its very nose; and, last of all, it was itself let out for hire. For seventeen long years it had occupied, with the utmost credit to itself, the high and honourable position of the First Church of Otago. In one sad hour it fell from its high estate—the First Church of Otago was converted into a wool shed—it sank down to the level of a common hired drudge of the lowest grade. The poor thing never recovered the blow. It died of a broken heart. It perished like a martyr at the stake. It breathed its last is the midst of devouring fire. Peace be with the ashes of our poor old Church.

To his Excellency, Captain Robert Fitzroy, R.N., etc., etc.

Sir,—On the eve of your departure from the colony, it is no more than just that you should for once be addressed in the language of truth, and however harsh it may appear to you, whose vanity has been hither to flattered by the fawning sycophants by whom you have been surrounded, it is a duty which is owed to the colonists generally, that before you leave the colony which you have nearly ruined, the wrongs which you have committed on them, and the country, should be made manifest to your eyes, if not to your understanding.

It is now a matter of history that the Bay of Islands was the oldest settlement where Europeans had been located, and was the most flourishing place in the whole colony. To prove this it is only necessary to refer to the statistical account of the shipping that frequented the harbours for the last 10 or 15 years to justify the assertion; and although on your arrival to assume the reigns of of Government it was not in its pristine page 57 rigour, still, a respectable and increasing business was developing the resources of that part of the colony, and its inhabitants were living comfortably and happy, blessed in the possession of moderate means and decent habitations, their relations with the aborigines were marked by a good feeling and forbearance which was worthy the imitation of the other settlements and gave promise ultimately of placing them in the scale of civilised beings; that these relations no longer exist, and that the settlement itself has been annihilated is now also a matter of history—and the suggestion naturally arises—"How has this unfortunate change been effected?"

With the view of carrying out your previous professed principles, imbibed at Exeter Hall, where the doctrine had gained ground, that the aborigines of every country we have become acquainted with have vanished before the eyes of their more civilised brethren, you were led to uphold the character of the natives to the prejudice of your own country-men and endeavoured to trace every fault committed by them, as emanating from the machinations of Europeans; and with a bigotry worthy of a darker age, you have openly slandered a pious and good Bishop, as foremost in such machinations, because, forsooth, his creed differed from your own.

In pursuing your new system, you set English law at defiance, and whenever any aggression or robbery was committed by the natives, you compounded for the crimes they had done! While with Europeans the rigour of the laws were enforced! As a matter of course, the natives were emboldened by the contempt with which you had taught them to regard their more civilised neighbours, and one act of aggression succeeded another, until at last they raised the standard of rebellion and wantonly insulted the Majesty of England in cutting down the flagstaff at Korora-rika. At the spur of the moment you sent to Sydney for troops, and received sufficient force to have crushed the rebeflion in its bud; but ere they arrived your infatuation had got the better of your understanding, and after bartering the honour of your country for ten soldiers' muskets—given up by friendly natives and unknown to the rebellious ones—you sent from the colony that support which the honour and dignity of your country demanded you should retain.

You have admitted that this was an experiment, to use your own words, and the result has been the annihilation of a whole settlement, and the properties of 600 inhabitants have been scattered to the four winds of heaven.

In adopting this line of policy you appear, Sir, to overlook the fact that you had no right to try experiments; your business was to govern the colony with energy and justice, for the mutual benefit, of the two races, and to frame such salutary laws as would at once develop the ample resources of the colony and at the same time benefit the Mother Country, in extending the consumption of the manufactures in return for its valuable exports.

Your policy has entailed on the Mother Country an expense of at least £50,000 through this experiment; besides the total destruction of the properties of 600 individuals to the value of at least another £50,000. This absurd and ruinous system, instead of opening your eyes to the proper and legitimate course to be pursued, has only blinded your narrow views, and proposals of a shameful and inglorious peace have been offered by you to her Majesty's rebellious subjects, as if you were treating with sovereign princes; and so low have you fallen in the eyes of the aborigines, and with such contempt do they look on your actions, that your proposals have not been accepted; and a force of 750 bayonets have been obliged to retire from the position they occupied, after being baffled in every attempt that has been made against the enemy, who still triumph page 58 over the slaughter they have made among our troops, and who still entertain sanguine hope of ultimately driving them from the Bay of Islands.

All your acts, Sir, have been illegal since this devoted colony came under your care, and you have not hesitated, when it suited your purpose, to add insult to deceit.

The manner in which the Customs were abolished by you was one out of many of your illegal acts; but in this case, the only one of your acts which would ultimately have been a blessing to the colony and have been the means of her prosperity—you again enacted in the whim of the moment, and which now exists as a record of your inconsistency.

You have taken advantage of your position to wantonly insult your equals in the most public manner, and to exercise a tyranny over others which their impoverished means compelled them to brook.

You have not hesitated wilfully to misrepresent your intentions, in order to curry popular applause at the moment, without looking forward to the degradation with which you would afterwards be viewed. Did you not, Sir, at the public meeting at Kororaraika. pledge your word that a permanent force should be left at that place, in order to check any outrage, when you had previously told the aborigines that the military should be sent away; and did you not carry out your latter intention? I blush when I record the fact.

You have screened from public justice a man notorious for his crimes against society, who added forgery to his already long list, and with your own hand you wrote him an ambiguous recommendatory letter, to enable him to prey upon others

You have shown a despotic disposition to encroach upon the liberty of the people; and have imprisoned an individual on false and frivolous charges, such as a grand jury of his country would not entertain.

You have caused an amount of paper money to be issued, exceeding by many thousand pounds, whit an indulgent Legislative Council allowed you to do; and have thereby kept up an expensive, lavish, and useless expenditure—ruinous to the future prospects of the colony.

You have been frequently urged to pass an Act to prohibit the sale of arms and ammunition to the native population, and you have not done so—until the Governor of another colony has prohibited their export to this country, except under certain regulations—a lesson to you as severe as it is just.

You have appointed a Police Magistrate on a salary at the Bay of Islands, where there are no inhabitants but missionaries, and where martial law was, and is still, existing; and by so doing you have wasted public money.

The recollection of these facts, one would imagine, would cause you some parting pangs in leaving the colony which you have embroiled in civil warfare; but the same bland smiles appear upon your countenance as usual, and the same honied words upon your tongue; deceit, insult, and illegal acts appear to please you; and the postscript added wilfully to Colonel Despard's despatch appear not to give you one moment's pain-the inanimate bodies of British officers, wantonly mutilated by a barbarous and rebellious foe, seem as nothing in your eyes, and instead of arousing your just anger, is treated as fabulous. The horrid cries of a poor soldier who was inhumanly tortured by the same ruthless foe, did not meet your ear; but recital of his sufferings has reached you, and yet no groan of indignation has been heard to escape.

Your high birth, Sir,—sprung as you are from the loins of kings,-should have bespoke you of gentle blood; but sympathy with savages has shown your more ignoble nature and the wildest reproach I can bestow is to accuse you of imbecility.

page 59

As the descendant of a King, and a captain in the Royal Navy where you had acquired some reputation as a skilful marine surveyor, you were welcomed on your arrival with enthusiasm, and every confidence was at first placed in you; but your earliest acts destroyed all the hope that had been formed, and the prospects of nearly all the subjects of her Gracious Majesty in the colony have been blasted by your imprudence.

A vacillitating policy will never cause a colony to prosper, and your course has been hitherto marked by a vacillation in a series of mischievous acts—experimenting upon the patience of a loyal people, who would, if their numbers had been equal to that of your favourite friends, the aborigines, have been also driven to rebellion.

Had you done your duty, the country you found flourishing and in peace would not have been plunged in anarchy and warfare, the lives and properties of your fellow countrymen placed in danger, their energies depressed, and their hopes blighted.

The greatest consolation they now have, Sir, is the knowledge of your early departure from them; and the only good wishes they can bestow is charitably to hope that your past mistaken career will cause you to abandon your public life and never more appear upon the stage of politics, for which you are totally unfitted. Let not the House of Commons be your aim, for there you cannot domineer, and put people down by a frown. Learn, Sir, the common courtesies and civilities of life—you are not yet too old to learn; but, believe me, the political horizon has set upon your career, and will never more rise. Take, therefore, warning from your fall and accept this letter as the only address you will receive from an insulted and deeply injured people.