ME JOHN BY LEY AND MR ELEDER.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10721, 9 February 1897, Page 4

ME JOHN BY LEY AND MR ELEDER.

TO TitK KDITOR.

iilß' —Will you uglily allow me space to reply to a htttr wiiiuli appeared in your issue 01 baVjrd»y signed "A. Elder." Had this ißsttr nob te?n so outrageou-ly false I would. H>-.va ttken no uoHce cf it. "i emphatically deny that I evar instigated Eider to purchase" the farm referred to. Hsd 1 desired it I couldcasily hr.ye bought it for myself. The facts are wmuiy these : Side: was living in the neighbourhood of the farm which was for sale. He had no land of bis o-.tr, ?.r.d he came to me to' Otepopo. where I v?as residing at the tims, and asked if I could help him to get this place. The pries was so high that he would not venture' upon the whole, and the eweer would not devide it. Ha suggested I shauld take the half. I agreed, and this was the cn!y partnership thitever existed between us. All'the money Elder put into the place was £QO. I hp.d to do the whole financing. After coming to Port Chalmers I had no means of knowing how things wera going on. Almost every month I had to send cheques to retire bills, and meet; expenses in connection with the working of the farm. For three years I could not get him to give raa a statement showing how matters stood. Finding I was deeply involved I insisted upon a square up. and then I found everything in a perfect muddle. He hud to corns down to my house to get from my r.ots - books ths sums I had advanced to him. A statement was prepared and Eigned by Elder which showed his indebtedness to me to be very heavy. Th>* mortgage on the place being f» fchl. s tlmo overdue, I was willing to face the [ loss in order to have the thing wound up I I made certain proposals to Elder which were all lia his lavonr. These I honourably adhered to. but a friend of his who was to undertake cerI tain responsibilities failed him at the last moment, and the mortgagee sold the place, with !£.^ S; O!! InS crop, at public auction in Dunedin. Elder s friend, and I think himself, were thera to ouy, and did bid for the farm. The placa was knocked down to the bid of Mr John Reid who acted as my agent. This, Sir, is the way the crop was collared by ms. Bo much, then, for the troth of Elder's letter. Previous to this Elder gold all the stock and plant ou the farm, and tbafc money went, or ought to have gone; to pay the floating debt of which he speaks. At any rat 3 I never received' a smiling of the proceeds. Shortly after this be fi.ed. .at the first meeting of his creditors he sucmitted a most extraordinary document which showed that I was a debtor to his estate to a considerable extent. The way he made uo his figures was this: Bills which had been retired by cheques which I sent him were credited to himself and debited against me. I.he proceeds of a line of wheat sent to London were charged to me, while no account was taken of a gum of between £1103 and £1200 which .at that time I had advanced to him. I attended the second meeting of his creditors and placed the facts befora them just as I am doing in this letter, and at the same time laid on the table Elder 1* own statement, above referred to, which showeJ his indebtedness to me to be nearly £900. When the creditors heard my account of the matter and examined the statement I submitted the? were indignant at the msn, and when h» attempted to speak they would not hear him. Now, as to the five acres he refers to, that wss chiefly bought with mv cheques, sent for th; purpose of securing the land to the farm, a3 itcoc tamed a valuable stream of water. To my greal surprise, however, I found that that land wa? put ia his wife's name, and could not be tonchei by me or any of his creditors. On that ground they built a honse, and there they live to the present .day. I leave Mr Blair to characterise this conduct in any terms he plesses. Eider's statemeatg about Otepopo are: es nnttue as those I have been eznosiasr. For 10 or 12 years he had the whole proceeds of the Kakanui Jann 8 and at the end he came out richer than when"h» went in, for he had those five acres which cos considerably more than he pafe into thi concern. The above, Sir, are facts which Elder cannot, refute, though he wrote letters to the papers till doomsday. As this matter is of no*" public interest to any one but Eider and myself, I will reply to no more communications on the subject. It any one, however, should require or wish' further information I shall be glad to furnish it, as I still have Elder's statement and ail the correspondence that passed between us. I t-m, &c, February 8. John Sylbt. [We are not prepared to let this correspond decce continue.—Ed. O. D. T.]