THE ABATTOIR.—THE MAYOR IN REPLY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10572, 20 January 1896, Page 4

THE ABATTOIR.—THE MAYOR IN REPLY.

TO THE EDITOB. Sm, —In your issue of this morning yon publish a characteristically written letter by Mr H. S. Fish on municipal matters, in which a very free use is made of my name. I do not intend to enter into o newspape* controversy with Mr Fish—municipal and other duties sufficiently occupy my time, —nor would I reply to this letter were it not for one part of it where he denies being urged by several members of the General Committee to make a new application to the Taieri County Council before seeking the removal of the injunction imposed by the court. He says this,i« absolutely untrue, and tbat 1 must knoWjit. I do affirm most emphatically tbat the facts are as I have stated them. Crs' Haynes, Solomon, and myself were present at the committee meeting, and urged Mr Fish to again apply to the Taieri County Council, and he was also requested by us to consult with the corporation solicitors and to be guided by them. He did consult the solicitors, bnt did not follow their %

aivica. I find, in looking over the cornspondence left in the corporation office, a-letter dated 19t,h November (six Mays after the General Committee's meeting) from the corporation solicitors in which they advise aa follows :—" Looking at the interpretation of the term ' local body' in the original act we think that this requires the consent of, the [ Taieri County Council, and as the future tense is used we doubt whether the first consent will suffice. Should _ the County Council withhold this, a motion might be made to the court, despite the refusal, in order to test the question. In the meantime, it will be safer to seek a repetition of the consent If it were feasible to read the proviso as applying to a neighbouring borough, which does not seem to ba the case, the consent of Mornington as well as Caversham would ba nece.sary." On one corner of this letter is a memo, dated "20th November 1895," which reads as follows:—"Mayer says he is instructing the solicitors to proceed at oace to more the court to dissolve the injunction, whether or no;" Please observe the dotes. I have refrained all through in my dealings with Mr Fish to use words to clothe his saying* and doings in their true character. I shall not begin now, nor do I intend to reply to any. mora letters written by Mr Fish on municipal matters. I leave you. Sir, and the public, with these plain facts to draw your own inferences. — I em, &c , ' ._■ ■ Dunedin, January 18. N. Y. A. Walk,