SEEKER AFTER JUSTICE. A PECULIAR CASE.

Evening Post, Volume LXX, Issue 58, 6 September 1905, Page 3

SEEKER AFTER JUSTICE. A PECULIAR CASE.

A strange story is published by a London paper relating to an ex-Australian, said to-day, at tho ago of 85, to be selling newspapers in the streets of London, ' while he breakfasts, lunches, and dines at the Hotel Cecil. He is Thomas Burt, and he is a seeker after justice. Born at Ringwood, Hampshire, in 1820, Bnrt, when 20 years of age, went out to seek his fortune in Australia. For twelve years he was a shepherd near Adelaide, but the goldfields flung their spell upon him, and he went to the diggings at Ballarat, where he met Mr. Seddon, the present Premier of New Zealand, and for nearly two years the men wero males. Then they took different paths. In 1888, so tbo story goos, Burt had a trumpery disputo with a watchmaker at Fingal, in Tasmania. He had sent a watch for repairs, and, on going to get it, was tendered an inferior one. He went to Court, and was nonsuited, but directed to return to the watchmaker, and in the presence of a witness place the wntch on the counter. This courso he adopted, but, according to his story, he was attacked by tho watchmaker, and so seriously injured that ho had to go into hospital. On recovering ho brought an action for £500 damages, but when the case came on for hearing, documentary evidence was produced showing that the verdict in the previous case had been entered as one for defendant, so tho damages claim was dismissed with £214 costs. That a wrong verdict had been erroneously entered in tho original case was admitted, but in the procedure of the Courts of Tasmania no way was discoverable of righting the wrong, though eventually, in 1894, on the recommendation of a Royal Commission, a special Act of Parliament was patted to right the wrong. This Act, however, required Royal assent. By this time Burt had been reduced to penury by the law's delays. In 1899 Tasmanions subscribed enough to send him to England to prosecute his suit, and he met his old friend, Mr. Seddon, then staying at the Hotel Cecil, where his case attracted sufficient interest to secure him an invitation to have his meals there as long as he cared to come. He accepted tho bounty as an alternatve to starvation, and,, though his appeals for justico to high officers of State still meet with nothing moro satisfactory than mere formal acknowledgments, ho declares that he will not return to Tasmania until a decision has been given ono way or another. That, in brief, is lu'o story, and there for the presenttho matter rests.