ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

Otago Witness, Issue 26, 15 November 1851, Page 2

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

No Communication tvill receive any attention imless accompanied with the name and address of the author, not necessarily for publication, hut as evidence of his good faith. * To the Editor of the Otago Witness. Sir, — In the last two numbers of your paper at- j tion was called to the present unsatisfactory state of | the department for the registration and transfer of! I land in this settlement, and the loss and inconvenience caused by the same. Agreeing with theremarks made by the writers of those letters, I beg to hand you the following statement for publication. Mr. Houden having purchased from the Resident j Agent and Commissioner of Crown Lands for the j district two suburban allotments, was desirous of j having the choices registered, and accordingly applied to Mr. Kettle (who is at present in possession of the Survey-office) to mark them off on the public map of the settlement. Mr. Kettle, who was on the public street at the time (11 o'clock), stated that he would be at the Office in the course of the day, and asked Mr. Ilouden to furnish him with a copy of the certificate of payment, and a letter requesting him to mark the sections off on the map. Mr. Houden waited in town until 3* o'clock, when, as Mr. Kettle

did not return, he was obliged to leave without having his business transacted. It being inconvenient for Mr. Houden to loose another day by coming to Dunedin on the chance of Mr. Kettle's attendance at the Survey-office, he applied to me professionally to transact the business for him. Accordingly, on the following morning (the 7th inst.) at 11 o'clock I called al the Survey-office to have the allotments marked off and registered, as having been purchased and selected by Mr. Houden,— but the Office was locked. After having called two or three times in course of the morning, I waited on till half past 12, when Mr. Kettle arrived. I presented to him a copy of the certificate of payment (the original having been shown to him the day before by my employer, and was then in my hands)-, and requested that the allotments therein referred to' should be marked off and registered. Mr. Kettle informed me that he had asked Mr. Ilouden to write him a letter. I replied that I had authority from Ilouden to have the business done ; and that I was not aware of its being necessary or customary for a person on presenting his land-order to accompany the same with any such letter as he wanted. He said lie was not to be dictated to by me. I then showed him Mr. Houden's letter authorising me to select the sections on his behalf, and requested to know whether he declined registering the same. He gave me no answer ; but made use of some ungentlemanly and insulting language, upon which I left the Office. I would further remark that, in consequence of Mr. Kettle's irregular attendance at the office, I was unable to attend an appointment on professional business. This indeed is not the first time I have lost days, and been otherwise inconvenienced, from the present anomalous position in which this department is placed ; but I have hitherto abstained from bringing these matters before the public, merely because it might be imagined that my doing so was from any degree of ill-will towards Mr. Kettle : but when I am prevented from transacting business, and insulted in a public office, 1 think it is high time that the subject should be brought before the public notice. — Yours, Szo., P. PuornrooT, Land Surveyor.