UNKNOWN.

Otago Witness, Issue 1582, 18 March 1882, Page 14

UNKNOWN.

■, ; ■ TO THB EDITOR.

Sib,— Taking It tor granted that you are prepared to allow' too space in your papor for the object of further ventilating my numerous grievances, : ruBUme, or take up, as novelists say, " the thread of my discourse." I- have hot coloured any of the charges, nor overdrawn on my imagination. In 1878 Holt applied to Warden Simpson for a lease of sections 130 and 131, blook HI, Leaning Bock district, comprising in all about 20 acre*, and being part of the 10 acres' tor which 1 had applied. These two sections, I need hardly say, were granted him. A peculiar feature in connection with the granting of thisapElication is worth of record. Section M 82, a utripof rod running the length of my sections, 116 and 117, was, 'on the recommendation of Surveyor Mackay, granted to Holt by the Warden. Curibusly enough, Holt never lodged an application for this section, and did not pay the survey and other fees, or in any other way comply with the necessarily stringent conditions ofthe'Aot. In 1877 James Holt applied for a lease of section 120,' Leaning Book distriot. For about 12 months he had two men proßpecting on it for indication^ of coal, but they failed to find any traces. Another peoultar feature is that the Warden allowed the fees paid by Holt for section 120 to be transferred to sections 180 and 181. This is a conclusive proof that Holt did not comply with the instructions of the • Act re payment of fees, &c. Now, Sir, we come to another phase of the question. I pegged oft section 180 (consisting of 10 acres) according to the wording of the Act, and otherwise complied with its directions, and at the outset I deposited £15 wlth.the Government Surveyor. I lodged the application for it, and Holt did ditto on the same day, but after me. According to the Act the applications should have been decided on the "priority of right" question, and I should have had section 130 granted me. Howovor, the Warden formally granted tho lease to. Holt. On the 27th and 23th of May Mackay came, up to survey the land on my behalf, and he lold me that if Holt did not put in an ap^ea ance he should Uproot his pegs and throw them on one 6ido. When he finished the survey he, in the presence of two or three others', showed me what he taid '«ere my pegs for section 130. Of course I believed his statement, and acted accordingly, for a Government surveyor's •word iB supposed to be as good as his bond, and to be binding upon him. Ma'ikay, after survey, should have posted a notice on the land to the effect that it would be granted to me, and' objections thereto should be lodged at the local Land Office. Noting the absence of the usual notice, I directed Mack»y's attention to the evident omission, but he replied, " What is that to do with you, Frenchman? May not the notice have been placed under a stone ?' Shortly after, the case again came before the Waiden, and he said, after I bad given my evidence, that unless I could distinctly name the* date on which I had pegged out the lard he would recommend the Dunedin Land Board' to grant the lease of section 180 to James Holt. As for priority of right, he said, that had nothing at all do do with the ma ter, in fact, he Ignored it as being an affair of a very trifling nature. Before the case came before the Court I had to make a further deposit of £10, making in all £25 paid by me on bebalf of this lease. This sum the Warden, through the clerk of the court, directed me to place in the 'surveyor's hands. After Holt received the lease I had the above amount refunded to me, less my lawyer's professional fee and"£3'3B tor surveying the Bections now held by Holt. But, Sir, Holt did not make any deposit. I thus had to pay away money for his benefit. I would also ask you, Sir, if 1 am compelled tj p*y for surveying land selected by Holt, why should not I also be legally forced to provide the food and drink necessary to keep his soul and body together ? The one act is just as legal and feasible as the other. Holt could not obtain trace 9of coal on section 120, so, to ruin my prospects and annoy me, he applied for a lease that I had previously lodged an application and paid survey and other fees for. I next come to the water question. The water he takes from the two shafts of his mino has during tho last two years been emptied in such a manner as to run on to my section 114. To a man not conversant with coal-mining, this may appear but a very umall matter. The water runs over the boundary-lino dividing our respective leases on to my ground, percolates through the earth to the body of ihe coal, thence through the coal to the vaiious drives and tunnels, from which it has to be pumped. Above the mouth of the main cutting to the mine is a deep rent in the earth, formei by the water coming from Holt's shafts. Almost daily 600 gallon*, taken from both shafts, have been . allowed to go on to my lease, and on several occasions as much as 1500 gallons have been drawn out. Tho Land Board have committed a permanent injury to mo in giving Holt possession of sections 130 and Til, in the face of the circumstances of the case. The Board do not look into tho bearings of the majority of the cases brought before them for adjudication, but blindly rush oti the business, :md givo their decisions in a devil-may-care sort of style. It costs them nothing to make or break a man ; and knowing tbab oven if by an adverse decision thoy Bhould plunge an applicant into the depths of misory and poverty, they arc not responsible for it. Lavr, Sir, is very good for lawyers and solicitors ; but I prefer a litrl'o of justic pure and siuiplo to all the law in the land. I have bad cart-loads of law ; but, on the other liatul, I'vo never had wen an ounce of justice meted out to me during the whole time it has been my unfortunato lot to havo to bo mixed with Jaw casea. The Commissioner of the Land Bofug told me thaji

Holt waa to have aeotlon 180 granted him } butjw he could not have known the facts of the case, he blindly followed the dictates of his own conscience, and tousle rhars unwittingly— lent himself to Holt to forward his ends. . „ , You must now see, Sir, that I am a hardly-used man, and I would aßk you to take up your pen on my bohalf.— l am, &c,

COLMNS TOUSSAINT MARIE Dairy Creok, near Olydo, March 12th.