5 Church Terrace
Lon, S.E.
July 17/86

My dear Mr Chesson,

I am sorry to have been unable sooner to reply to your letter of the 12th inst. Mr Gribble has sent me a copy of Mr Harper’s opinion on his assault case. I have also received copies of his letter to the Governor of the Colony, and of the reply of the Colonial Secretary thereto, addressed to the Dean of Perth who is acting as my … during my absence from the Diocese. These latter I send for your perusal, asking you kindly to return them to me when you have done with them. From the Colonial Secretary’s letter you will see that the Government are in no way responsible for the delay in dealing with Mr G’s case in the Magistrate Court. The delay was owing, I understood before leaving the Colony, to two causes. 1st Mr Gribble’s inability to satisfy the Magistrate as to there being any evidence forthcoming to substantiate his case; and 2nd the subsequent illness and death of the Magistrate. That Mr Gribble was subject onboard the steamer by which he came down from the Gascoyne to Perth in February last to a great deal of very unpleasant and rough treatment we had no doubt, but it seemed to me and others of the Mission Committee that he could not bring any real evidence in support of his own statement in the matter, and that in making that statement public, as he did in the papers, he had done all that was desirable under the circumstances in the real interests of the Mission, to which the expense of an legal action that could not be sustained would have been considerable. I strongly advised Mr Gribble therefore before I left to let the matter drop, and understood that his solicitor concurred in this view.

I fear that he is acting altogether in a very in impetuous and unwise manner, calculated to invite hostility and opposition … in the Colony to our Mission work, both in this matter and in regard to the work generally. Beyond building a home for himself he has done nothing yet during the 12 months which he has been in the Colony towards any real commencement of steady work amongst the natives. He has on the contrary begun by declaring open war against the settlers, on really insufficient grounds; and good man as in many ways I believe him to be he has I fear none of the wisdom or patience needful to the prosecution of such work as has been entrusted, and must be withdrawn from it unless it is to be allowed to fail altogether.

I am, dear Sir,
Very faithfully yours,
H.H. Perth

To F.W. Chesson Esq