CLUTHA DISTRICT BOARD.

Bruce Herald, Volume VII, Issue 618, 28 July 1874, Page 5

CLUTHA DISTRICT BOARD.

(To ihe Editor qf the Bmce Herald.) : g lsl) — Observing some remarks in your paper of 3 4th July re the Clutha Road Board and Messrs Mosley, Campbell, and Major Richardson. I read the article, and must say, to use your correspondent's phrase, ifc ia a tale in a cul de sac. I suppose he picked up that slang in Canada, the plain English being a tale in a bag. However, let us open the bag to get at the true state of the affair. i Your correspondent states that " Mr Bew* 1 gave Mr Campbell a right to use a road

which runs through his property on a dry spur from the foot of the ranges"— a great boon that. So Mr Bews gives Mr Campbell a right to use a road which runs through Mr Campbell's property ! I should hope Mr Campbell returned thanks to Mr Bews in a becoming manner. I always thought every person had a right to use a road, subject to the law. However, let us return to the bag. When Mr Mosley bought the property from Mr Bews, it was used as a kind of common by Mr Everybody, who went all over the place any- and every way they chose. It also afforded a good commoD for everybody s borses, cattle, &c— in short, a kind of No man's land. I believe the truth was thiß, that Mr Bews was not able to fence it iv, and was afc last obliged to sell it. When Mr Mosley came into possession, he, poor man, committed tbe mortal, sin of claiming and fencing in his own land, whereupon the commonage vanished. Now while Mr Mosley was having the property fenced in, »n agreement was entered into between the Road Board and Mr Mosley to exchange the block line, running east and west, for a deviation running nearly in the same direction, but avoiding the deep gullies. When Mr Mosley had fenced in one side of the deviation (which, by-the-bye, was laid off by Mr l*aterson, the Board's engineer), he to his surprise received a note stating tbat the Board declined to recommend the exchange to the Government unless Mr Mosley would give them another line in addition — thus repudiating their agreement. Sir, I have been informed that Mr Campbell and Major Richardson induced the Board to this action. This is the hitch, then ; if there is any obstructiveness in the late Clutha Road Board, it ought to be fairly charged on these gentlemen. Your correspondent does not state the truth when he says Campbell is shut in. Campbell is not shut* in, he has a good road through Mr Mosley's property, viz., that given in exchange for the impassable block line — he can go east and w-est, north or south, without hindrance. The grievance is not that he is shut in, but that he cannot have a road through the private property of Mr Mosley, to suit himself ; that is the sore spot. Your correspondent tries to make Campbell out to be an ill used man. "He could not get his wool away until all the wool in the district was carted down, and had then to pay a higher price ; he was also compelled to sacrifice his oats for the same reason." I may state that it was not for the want of a road that he did not get it away Booner ; forget it away he did, without any alteration in the road, and he could have got it away before had he taken the trouble to do it — poor, injured soul. The corn that was sacrificed must have been very serious considering tbe vast area under stubble, and the quantity of bushels, per acre, taking into account the horses he keeps, if he gives them any corn at all, the surplus for sale no doubt a baker's dog cart could soon remove. These things are known to the Clutha settlers, who have quietly allowed Mr Campbell and Major Richardson to drop off the Road Board, and have elected men who it is to be hoped will prove better men to the district. Your correspondent may ask Mr Campbell if it is true that, while glowing with indignation at the iniquity of the Road Board in not making him a r lad through Mr Mosley's private property to sweep out in his buggy — if, while smarting under this, which he may call an injustice — he has not coolly erected thirty chains of a fence exactly up the middle of a legally surveyed road, between •sections 8 and 9, block 11, leading direct to the homesteads of his two nearest neighbors, in defiance of their protestations ; and upon which line of road more money ha 3 been spent than on that which disturbs the good man's slumbers. He, having 1600 acres of freehold grouud, without losing an inch of it in roads, would, it seems, have no compunction in encroaching upon the rights of others by invading a district road, to the serious inconvenience of his own neighbor?, or in his childish attempts to cut (up the property of Mr Mosley into awkward angles, under the pretence that if he cannot have such a road through Mr Mosley's it will cause a depreciation in the value of his [own, for which, by the by, I believe he paid the large sum of 10s per acre. I might pause to ask, what about the depreciation done to Mr Mosley's property ; is it nothing to destroy the value of that property to raise the value of another ? Your correspondent charges the Clutha Road Board with "perpetrating injustice, and putting people about from motive's of their own. Did he know that Campbell and Richardson were members of that Board for the last two years ? Ido hope that the new members of the Board will be actuated by motives of truth, equity, and justice, and that they will scorn all selfishness, and work together for the good of the district, and not for the selfish ends of anyone. Tour itinerant correspondent would do well to post himself up in matters relating to roads and Road Ordinances before he again commits himself to paper, and also to hear both sides of a tale before he judges of its merits, or he will only render himself ridiculous by meddling with things he does not understand. I conclude by remarking, I hope soon to say something about the subdivisions of the Clutha District re Roads Ordinance. I am, <fee, Clutha Settler. July 24, 1874.