MISS POCOCK'S CASE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 849, 10 September 1864, Page 5

MISS POCOCK'S CASE.

(To the Editor of the Daily Times.)

Sir - Would you please give this letter insertion, thtt I may reply and upset, the base insinuations made upon a defenceless woman. You have been entirely deluded and deeeive'l in your arti de of 3rd instant, through the unscrupulous concoction bf a one-s;den story, and the apparent unsophisticated memorial. You commence with the homely document." a memorial to the Ju tge and Jury of the Supreme Court; ifc so happens thatthe Jury never will come in to existence since the Grand Jury bas disposed of the ca cc, by throwing out fhe charge (shame). It is nofc per mitted to juries to have their feelinps appealed to (a very wise precaution); then why is ihe appeal made to the public, if ev'pn-handed justice will not entertain it. Ifc is craved for, and not justice; sorely, then, the guilt is appa-ent. it then says ihe memorial is the production rf those whose feelings were enlisted in the subjict, from persons perhaps not highly educated, (true, and nofc highly moral,) and not mv h used to the ways ofthe world, (no, but extremely so to the ways ofthe diggings), the arricle goes on then with complete mockery. Next comes a young lady whose tastes incline to hotel keeping nnd to platonic ivlations with sable friends. I hurl that latter base imputation with scorn to its source, as maliciouslyfiil.se; then why did that paragon of excellence and assumed g>ntiliiy, M>- Warden Williamson, court llie associations of thes' sable friends by coming there to get his meals, and aso bringing other gentlemen, and niakine: ifc a place of constant resorfc; where were these other respectable bouses and females who signed the memorial, when he eonfenreii this distinguished honor and patronage, if this house nud my respectability was a question ; then if there was any truth in ihise pia onic relations with sable friends, was it consistent, with the taste of a gentleman to partake of those platonic sentiments. Mr Williamson recommended the licence ; the money was paid. Refer to the Court records of the 2Sth May las':- The man Powell never was my servant or cook, nor yet in anyway associated, as basely insinuated. It is a cowardly attack upon a woman's reputation, when an accusation brings no stronger testimony than a bare surmise. * * The dastardly charge of bc-.ii.g drunk afc the Shamrock, on the Arrow, is false. * » * I did avoid local justice, and travelled two hundred miles to prosecute my charge, as you state. I have r»y own opinion of what would be the issue of prosecuting a delinquent War.len under the ruling dictates of a brother functionary;. and as for me being willing to receive a pecuniary compensation, I deny it; the only knowledge I have of any such arrangement, is that I was asked, in the presence of a respectable witness,, through my solicitor, if i would accept fifty pounds not to proceed with the cisc; this was prior to its inquiry inthe police court; and as for this charge being_ a con spiracy, as stated, is a very feeble suggestion. I am perfectly aware of the odium thrown on a female in prosecuting a charge of this kind, for 1 presume I pos-ess the amount of delicacy generally allotted to females, and I, in common wfah all other femdes, allow that modest license > to men that nature has decreed ; bufc when the limits of common decency, is overstepped and the circumstances swayed to revolting disgust, and then subsequently become the victim of derisive jeers throuuh the medium of m% defiler, ifc is time for me to s?ek that redress that justice entiles me to *■*** * . * *

The course selected by Mr Ward in reference to this unsophisticated memorial, and his mode of procedure in bullying me in the Police Court, dont appear bo be that he is overburdened with intellectual judgment ; this capacious want is disnlayedin his over zealous desire to screen Mr Warden Williamson. It has. been suggested why I should have allowed time to elapse before I made my complaint. I have already given the local reason, andl repeat that the weather was too severe for me to come such a distance, particularly when I hai to walk from the tihotover to the Dunstan, which took me two days and ahalf; surely this task of travelling over mountain tracks, in deep gorares, and over precipitous rocks, as the memorial iufers, is greater to a woman, and the inaccessible country, is less of a bed of roses to her than the equestrian wanderings of a Warden-; and in pursuing my determination, I sold my place at a sacrifice, and reduced myself to low pecuniary circumstances in seeking thafc redress thafc has been denied me; but I have the solacing conviction that there is a High Tribunal where the interposition of a grand jury is obsolete. This is my first and last reply, as lam an isolated poor woman, and unequal to contend against editors, lawyers, influence, money, and position. I emphatically deny that I ever made the admission in Court—tint I cohabited with a man as published. They may prosecute me further, but they cannot injure me more than they have done. Yours, kc, Eliza Emma Poodck. Dunedin, Bth Sept., 1864. [Portions of the above letter, attacking the signers of the memorial and others, are necessarily left out; we could not puolish them with safety.—Ed. D. T.]