553
mentioned in paragraph 91 as to a gentleman having presented a valuable collection of plants to the Gardens which he subsequently found dying, although similar plants presented to private individuals were found in a flourishing condition, I am happily able from personal knowledge to corroborate the real facts as given by Mr Bowdler in the memorandum attached (Appendix F) by which Your Lordship will see that Mr Ford has also in this instance been misinformed).
21. I cannot trust myself to dwell on the injustice which has been inflicted upon me by the publication of this Report containing charges of so humiliating and so injurious a nature without previous enquiry into their truth, and by the use which has been made of the Government Gazette, which is the official history of the Colony, as the vehicle of gibbetting me before the officers of the large Department over which I preside and before the general public. No officer in this Colony has ever been permitted to make use of the pages of this publication to attack another, or to ventilate grievances already settled against a Department to which he had been previously attached.
22. The foregoing explanation I venture to think sufficiently supports my statement that Mr Ind's report is a calumnious document, and that its publication under all the circumstances does evince an intention to injure