CORRESPONDENCE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 84, 14 August 1852, Page 8

CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of the Lyttelton Times. Sir, —The letter of Mr. Worsley, in last week's Lyttelton Times, imposes on me the duty of a very brief correction of the 8 consecutive mistakes it contains. Ist. Then, I was not " Jackson's principal witness," but simply a valuator acting faithfully between the plaintiff and defendant, alike the witness of Mr. Worsley and Mr. Jackson. 2nd. The decision of the Magistrates was not, as stated by Mr. Worsley, given entirely on the ground of the fence bein=; 5 ft. 6 in. high, but on the broader grounds of their being 14 head of cattle kept on an insufficient extent of bad pasturage, admittedly, neither herded by day nor yarded by night, and no reasonable precaution taken by the owners of these starving cattle to prevent trespass. 3rd. The fence of the Botanical Garden is not " 7 feet high," but in many places 5 ft. 2 in. high, and is about to be enlarged to the declared minimum standard dimensions of the Settlement, of 5 ft. 6 in. 4th. Mr. Brittan's fence it not, as affirmed by Mi-. Worsley, 6 ft. high for an unbiased measurer will find portions of it only 4 ft. 6 in. sth. On the other hand, Jackson's fence is just 12 inches higher than Mr. Worsley represents it, as fully proven by several witnesses to be 5 ft. 6 in. high, and in one place crossed 6 ft. 6 in., whilst on the opposite side of the same enclosure one of the portions of the fence most frequently crossed by the cattle was sworn to be over 7 feet high, and the ditch more than 6 ft. in width. 6th. Unluckily for the truth of Mr. Worsley's assertion that he had only " 4 cows on the land," it was admitted in court by his own witnesses that the number were 14 head of cattle; (to which should have been added 5 horses), but more unfortunate still, two of Mr. Worsley's " 4 new calved cows" were sworn to be bulls. 7th. Mr. Worsley's " best winter pasture in the Colony" included the "run" of 13 acres of a cabbage garden, and the boasted " condition" of his cattle is easily attributable, not to the'" beneficial young grass," but to the consumption of the 6 poor working men's £21 worth of vegetables, for which the " compensation" oifered was 15s. shillings. Sth. That his land is " entirely," or even in part fenced in from the enclosure trespassed on is simply untrue. I have thus in justice to my own character reluctantly fulfilled the very unpleasant duty of exposing the grossest errors that even disgraced the usualJy truthful columns of the Lyttelton • Times. lam, Sir, Your obedient servant, W. Wilson. Christchurch, August 11, 1852,