PAHIATUA

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1683, 1 June 1904, Page 26

PAHIATUA

(From Oiir Own Correspondent.) Air C. R. Mitchell defeated Mr T. Gore by a large majority in the election of a Borough Councillor to fill the vacancy created by the election of Councillor Crewe as Mayor. _ A case of considerable interest to riparian land owners was heard at the late sitting of the Pahiatua District-Court. The plaintiff, AV. H. Fisk, claimed £490 damages from tho defendants, J. Farrelly and G. Gregory, by way of compensation for injury alleged to have been done to plaintiff’s land by water, owing to the alleged wrongful act of the defendants in cutting a dam erected by the County Council on the Mangatamoka river. Mr Herdman, instructed by Mr McSherry, appeared for the plaintiff, and Dr Findlay, instructed by Mr Tosswill, for tfle defence. After a hearing lasting four days the jury returned a verdict for the defendants. It was an open secret that had a verdict been returned for the plaintiff, other actions of a similar nature would have been brought against tlie defendants. The dam in question lias, up to tho present, been the cause of three law suits, but it is generally thought now that the verdict in the last case will set the matter at rest. Heavy and continuous rain has been falling for some days, and at the time of writing shows no sign of abating. The rivers in the district are all in high flood, but up to the present no serious damage has been reported. Apropos of flood water, a party of Pahiatua sports driving home at night’from Dannevirke after a meeting last Wednesday, had an exasperating experience. Near the Matahiwi station the road was covered to 1 a depth of several feet with flood water, and after negotiating several hundred yards of this, and several hundred yards still to negotiate, the cab stuck fast. A liberal application of whip and wrathful encourage men t having been used on the J) arses without success, the conscientious'objections of some of the party to cold water were at* length oVercome, and four heroes took the plunge, three of them going down "all standing,” and the fourth in Highland costume. After half an hour of lurid language and hard graft, during which the members of the party, individually and collectively, displayed a command of invective up till that time unsuspected by their closest intimates, the vehicle was freed and the journey completed without further incident.