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A selection from the writings and speeches of John Robert Godley

[letter to Mr. Fox]

Mr. Godley arrived in Wellington in April 1850. On the 19th August he was elected a member of the Settler's Constitutional Association. In the following letter to Mr. Fox, read at a subsequent meeting, he stated his reasons for declining to act on the Corresponding Committee:—

"My Dear Sir,—Will you have the goodness to state, at the next meeting of the Constitutional Association, that I have been compelled to decline acting on their Corresponding Committee. The truth is, that, while I wish to indentify myself, in the most complete manner, with the Association, as to its general principles and objects, and while I have not the page 63slightest reason to suppose that with all its future acts I shall not cordially concur—on the other hand, the fact that I am merely a sojourner for a short period at Wellington, as well as the other avocations which must shortly press upon me, forbid the possibility of my taking an active part in conducting its proceedings; and, under these circumstances, I must, in justice to myself, disclaim that responsibility, which, if I did take an active part, I should necessarily incur. I have troubled you with this explanation of my motives for publicly resigning the honor of acting on your Committee, from a (perhaps groundless) fear of misconstruction—a fear lest it he supposed that I wish to withdraw from the intimate political connexion which now, I rejoice to say, subsists between the Constitutional Association and myself. I must apologize for not having communicated with the Association to the above effect earlier; I did communicate to a similar effect with the members of the Committee immediately after my election.

W. Fox, Esq.