AN APPEAL FOR JUSTICE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10417, 20 July 1895, Page 7

AN APPEAL FOR JUSTICE.

TO THE EDITOE.

Varying an Ordeii.—Joseph Predsrick M'lvor ' applied to have an order, madu ajniust him at Oaristcluirch for the support of his mother, 1 hercsft Dixon, varied.—After evidence, his Worship thought that M'lvov was unable to comply vHth the order, but considered he should pay fiomething. The order was varied from 10s to 23 (id a wnek.

_;Apkilia*ion.—John Campbell was charged with disobeying an order for the maintenance of his illegitimate child, of which Isabelhi M'Culloch waa the mother.—Mr E. D. Macdonald appeared fov the girl, and Mr J. F. M. Fraser for Campbell. Mr Fraser said the matter rested exactly as it did on the day it was, last befora the court. His Worship would remember the medical evidence on that occasion. Defendant was not able to be present on account of his condition. He was physically unable to attend. —Mr Macdonald pointed out thafa considerable time had elapsed nince the order.waa made, and the man had not paid anything at all under it. It was a hard case for this young girl, who was seduced by this man, and who had'to support hsrself.— Hm Worship said itseemed to him them must ba a conviction.. Th« only question was what the. 'punishment w;is ■to be.—Mr Fraser said that under ordinary circumstances his Worship would order imprisonment. He did not think the bench had aay power to commit to the hospital, but he sup Dosed the.police had-discretionary, iibwer.—Mr Carew said such was not the case.—Mr Macdonald suggested that the case be adjourned, as he understood'that the man took up a defiant attitude.— Mr Carew: What you can do is to lay an information at any time. There are no court fees, and you can get a report from the local constable at any time as to, the man's.condition.—After,'some furtha'r argumeiit the case was adjourned to tho Ist August next: • " . .

Friday, July 19.

(Befora Messrs C. Allan and A. Solomon,* J.P.s)

-■' Larceny as a Bailee.—Frederick Seelen was charged, on, remand, that, being the bailee of a flute, valued j at. £5, the property of Frederick Cook, he did, oh the 12th June, convert the same 'to his own use.—Mr Hanldn appeared for accused, and stated that this casß had been remanded for the probation officer's report. Ho understood that the report was unfavourable, and would urge their Worships to order accused to come up for sentence if called on. Accused was a first offender, and since* the occurrence his friends had undertaken to look after him, and to send him to Sydney by the first boat going there.—The Bench did not think it 'advisable to send the young man to gaol, and, as they could not give him th« benefit of the Probation Act/decided to dsal with the.case under section 66 of the Indictable Offences Summary Jurisdiction Act, which permitted them to discharge a first offender on his making restitution to tlie party aggrieved. Accused would therefore be convicted and discharged, on his paying 20s costs in connection with the theft. ' r (Before Messrs A. Solomon and I. Selby, J.Ps.)

Drunkenness:—A first, offender was charged with drunkenness.—Sergeant O'Neill stated that the man was taken ill and had to be sent to the hospital, and would not be allowed to leave there before the end of next week!— Case adjourned to the 26th inst. —-Another first offender was convicted and discharged. Burglary.—James Blue was charged on remand with having, on the 15th inst., broken and entered the dwelling, of Mary Joyce, in King street, with intent to commit a felony.—Mr Harilon appeared for accused.—ln this case, particulars of which have alrearty appeared, further evidence was given by Detective J&'Grath and Plain-clothes Constable Cooney, who detailed the,circumstances of how they secreted themselves in tho house and caught accused.—Committed for trial, bail being allowed, accimed in the sum of £50, and two sureties of £25 each.

By-law Case.—John Waldie was fined 2s 6d for driving 13 head of cattle through the borough of lioslyn, between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., contrary to the by-lawa of the borough.

Sin,—-In a letter which I wrote to your paper, and which you wera kind • enough to insert on the Bth July, I challenged the accuracy of the report of the meeting of the Portobello Road Board, and alr.o the truthfulness of the minuta passed relating to myself. I espected the chairman or some of the members would hays replied thereto, but seeing they have not done so I will thank you to again kindly grant me space in your columns so that, I may lay before your readers a few factji showing the way I have baeu treated from first to last in connection with a road leading to my property in biock IV, Ofc&ao Peninsula. „

In the ; year 18631 bought two sectionsoflaad from the Crov?u at auctions (55 acres), ■ being sections 5 and 6, : block IV, and from aome oversight on the pert ofctbe surveyor the road round the block was leffcdisconnected from the district road by a distance of about 4£ chains, thus leaving no access;: to the block. As soon as I became awate of;this I drew the> attention of the. lt^te Provincial Government to tbio omission, and they; at once, acknowledged their liability to provide a road. I then brought the matter before the.{SencraLßoad Board, and Mr Haggitt, then provincial aolioitor, advised the board that it wp.ald be unfair to make landowners in. block IV pay-rates until they got access to ..their : land. The Government then paid rates: on my land and. also the rates on all sections in the said block, and contiuued to dp soi for a nvynber?of years on account of this oversight.--' *■>

In the years: 1873 and 1874 the Provincial Government took steps to provide access to this block, under the. cohapulsory clauses of the Land Act; but in this, through some 1 ethnical objections, they Failed: ..They then sent several letters to the PortobaHo 'Road Board requesting that body to take > the necessary steps to provide a road, and that they (the Government) would hold themselves responsible for the amount of compensation in addition to the cost of all proceedings. The Portobello Road Board reEueed to. take the step's becn-use they considered it was the duty of the Government to provide the road. The Government then refused to pay rates any longer.->' '..'..

Being still without a road to my land, in 1879 I sent a petition to the House of Representative?, showiDg the hardships I was undergoing and the loss I was sustaining on account of the want of a road, and praying for relief and redress. In the year 1880 the House voted the cum of £300 specially for the purpose of a road to block IV, and.the whole o? thio amount was literally frittered away. £250 was given to Mrs Rochford as compensation for a little over ons-fourfch of an- acre of land, which was all that was required to complete the continuity of the road. Now, taking the ptriodic assessments of Mrs Rochford's propurty (or any adjoining property)-as the basis of value, it was nqc at auy time (and is not now) worth more than £20 per acre. The land is of no special value, and the loss of this piece of land has in no sense depreciated, the value of the remainder of the property. In the payment of £78 for tbe survey of small area acquired—a work that would have beeu amply paid for with the sum of five or sis guineas—the Bame gross extravagance and reckless waste of public mone is displayed, the two items absorbing the whole vpte of £300, and £28 besides—to wit, the pur cbaso and survey-of a little over a quarter of n acre of» rural:land cost £328. I have made many applications to thePorliobello Road Board to have the road formed, but to no purpose, the reasons ;for delay in dealing with the matter being the veriest subterfuge. . I will now briefly refer to the causes which have operated to thwart all my honest attem ptq to obtain access to my land by the only authorised avenue of approach. ' The present chairman of the road board h been a member for over 20 years. This gentlf mau has been always active in opposition cc my gatting this road, and there has always been in existence a clique possessing the voting power iv the board, and every effort I have made i fcbs matter of the road has thus bean nullified. The chairman and his brothers own land in i his block IV, and they also own land in" blocks IV and V, Portobello Survey district. Some of this land has a frontage to the main beach road, the rest to the Hooper's Inlet road, and the property for which the road board gave £250 for a quarter-acre lies between the two. Pour acres of Mrs Rochford's section (1 of 4, block IV), which joins Dickson's properties, have been in their occupation since the award was made to Mrs Rochford. The sections I own in block IV woald have alsobeea a connecting link between their two properties. The present chairman of the road board (Mr Dickaon) made overtures to me on several occasions to purchase my laud, assigning as the reason that there was no likelihood of my ever getting a road to-it. I now leave the public to judge the why and the wherefore. ..:..-

To give an instance of how things may be brought about, I will just quote a case for the benefit of the public and your readers, which will go a long way to show that it is a long lant that has no turning; and whether I am right 01 wrong in ray. conclusions I Jeave the public to judge. About the year 1870 or thereabouts I was a member of the road board, and a survey wan made which seemed to show tbat the Hooper's Inlet road was not in it? exact place Tha Messrs Dickson, who own 50 acres on each side of the road, blockaded it by felling trees across it, and pat in a claim for compensation in the suca of £200. This demand the board refused to satisfy, but to obviate litigation, T.-hioh was threatened, offered the sum of £50, and Mr John Qeaj-y, another member of tho board, and myself were deputed to try and arrange the mnU.er with Messrs Dickson. This offer was refused, and in the litigation which ensued the judgment of the coart was ndcerse to the Dicksong. I had to appear officially in the piiblia interest, and as a ratepayer agaiusfc tbfim. This may be one reason for my not getting the road.

As this is a long letter I must apologise for trespassing on your spaoe, bat; I hope that in some fnture iaeue you will grant we further space for publishing somo of the letfcors I have sent to the road board in connection with this matter that I Slavs iv my possession, and what oamo oE them. Thanking you in anticipation,— I am, &c, Peninsula, July 19. Alexander Clack.

DON'T-SIT IN A DRAUGHT. If you do there will probably rest on you a cold that will require wme such stimulant and healthrtstorer as Wolfe's iSchniipps to remove it. — A mauußcripli Hebrew Bib'.o in tho Vftfcicau weigus 3<ioib, and is the largest; Bible in the world. SPRING BLOSSOM TiEA.