Untitled

Oxford Observer, Volume 1, Issue IV, 7 September 1889, Page 5

Sir,— ln your issue of August _&4th Mr Parlane does al large amount ot special pleading to condone the faults of commission and omission of the Oxford Road Board. Having, as he says, sat with five different combina tions of men on the Board, sur ely.Hhey could not all have been 7 actuated by malice m their, dealings, with me ; I do not say they were, but, Sir, on/August 7th the present Chairman* m answer to Mr Ingram, said the Board wa3 responsible for the Main Drain, and we find, by legal decree, that it is 'so. Then, I would ask Mr Parlane how haa the Board carried:, out 7. the, duiie_ of "its responsibility dmtng '-'' these last lew years, .-^as it 3gjt been by using the* pon^nued ratespof, . ihe di£, trict to crns-.; if' it waa possible, !:a sma_l ratepayer of the ssme district, and preypnt him from getting jwstice. Again, Mi* Parlane evidently wishes to assume the role of Ananias, when he •* makei. me to say that % o,ffered to "settle the first actibh for $500. '[We have to plead guilty to a printer's error m the issue referred to, which wa3 overlooked m reading the proofs. The sum should have been £50 not £500. — Ed.] And then he positively asserts the ; offer Was never made to the Board. ' Sir, TMr Parlane must think it great fun to first put a straw mail up that he may have the pleasure of knocking him over again. . The offer that was really made was this, that I would take £50, not £500, , as /stated, and settle the matter out of Court, and thia offer was matle^ to Mr' Parlane, the then ChairmaiVof the Board, who, along with three other members of the Board, stood m conclave assemble*! between Fisher's Hotel and the Courir ' house, on the day of the 'election of onr late member, _ts* Pearson. The answer I got was, " We have Wat Mr Stringer. .before, and^e^will beat him again:-'.' This, Sir, I'Ca_i' proVe by respectable .witnesses who -were then present. So 'much for Mr Parlays assertion that •aIJ offers to settle tfe&matter emanated from the Boards Be Mr Parlane on fencing— in the pleasantly sauve . gentlemen,; asking what could the T^oard do for _ne m fencing the land taken for the drain, I {ail 'to recognise the Chairman pf the Bo^rd who refused to let me Wye a gate m the fence to he erected by the Board, so that I could gain acoess to my land. At the present time I. am debarred from getting on my land to put my ojrops in^Vfirst, by the water on the frontage ; secondly- by the • aotion of the Board m leaving no gate m the fence ereoted by them. And this, Sir

is the vaunted "kindness of thi Board, ' whose only fault, according to Mr Parlane,- is that ihey have been too kind to me. Mir Parlane does not '■■7 appear to like the miserable section, is it on account of the fall it gave him, does' the remembrance : of the boasts of what •he would do new Smart, is he like the first Napoleon, who, when he had. guided his army to Moscow and destruction, deserted it ? I notice he has deserted the Board, leaving to others the task of extricating it from the difficulties m which, principally . from his- actions, it has been placed. 'If Mr Parlane thinks my land is peat over shingle, with an under-current of water, which * was so freely sworn to during the last trial, is he prepared to back his opinion with his own money ? If so, Ishallbegladto hear from him : ! or does he think that the more mud he «an throw the greater chance there is for it to stickApologising for the length of this letter, Yours, &c._ James Finlay. Bennett's, September 6th.