Royal Mariner
Woolwich
15th Jany 61

Sir,

I beg to thank you and the Committee in whose name you address me for the expression of Christian sympathy for my brother Archdeacon Hadfield and the Native interests in which for near a quarter of a century he has laboured with so much success and interest, but which now, unhappily, has been disturbed by colonists clamorous for the acquisition of the land belonging to these brave and interesting people, without reference to treaties, or apparently any sense of right or wrong.

I shall take the earliest occasion of acquainting my brother with the purport of your letter which I have no doubt will tend to strengthen his hands and heart in the just and holy cause which he has espoused.

You kindly refer also to my protest in The Times against Professor Browne’s subtle attempt not only to cast a slur on my brother, but to divert the public eye (as his brother the Govr has also sought to do) from the point at issue. That journal acted very unfairly in that matter. My reply to the Professor’s second letter was suppressed. On the receipt of the Bishop of Wellington’s letter vindicating my brother from that aspersion I again addressed The Times enclosing a copy of that letter. These also were suppressed. I then remonstrated privately with the Editor, but with no effect.

I subsequently addressed both the Morg Herald and Morg Post enclosing for publication not only the Bishop’s letter referred to, but my brother’s reply to the Govr’s surreptitious charges made to the Duke of Newcastle. And I privately also explaining my motives – the injustice of The Times. The Post has taken no notice, and I am not aware if the Herald has or no.

I thought it was due to my brother, if possible, to contradict those false allegations in England. In N. Zealand they have been thoroughly and warmly exposed, I find, by the Auckland and Wellington papers.

Such vulgar abuse as that of Mr Walter Brodie is too contemplable to notice. But what surprises me is that The Times should espouse, or insert, such trash, knowing it to be false.

The Editor today, I find, is apprehensive, I think justly so, that the last battle may prove only a first act in a conflict between the Queen’s supremacy and the native sovereignty. But our wilful abuse of the treaty of Waitangi

I thank you for the copy of the ‘Aborigines Friend’ which is very interesting. I have as yet no intelligence from N.Z. by this mail.