A TRAGEDY OF ERRORS. WEST COAST NOTES. (From Our Own Correspondent.) GREYMOUTH, March 14.

Otago Witness, Issue 2504, 19 March 1902, Page 45

A TRAGEDY OF ERRORS.

WEST COAST NOTES. (From Our Own Correspondent.) GREYMOUTH, March 14.

LTLLYWHITE'S COMPENSATION. li'KCßi Our Own Cokrk3j?oxde>t.) LONDON. January 17. La?t week I recorded the \ irtual teimination of the strange, and perhaps unparalleled, tragedy of errors of which Mr Charles Lillywhite was alike the hero and tho victim. The outcome, it will be remembered, was that the British Government, althoush- not admitting any legal liability, decided to pay Mr Lillywhite a certain sum in satisfaction of all claims for compensation. On the following day it was announced that the sum finally agreed upon between the Government and Mr Lillywhite wa» £600, which had been accepted by him_ as definitively closing the whole affair. With reference to the final settlement a London paper says: — "The last scene of that tragic comedy of errors, the Colchester murder muddle, was performed at the American Embassy.

"There, at noon, Mr Charles Lillywhite, as a citizai' of the L'mtod States, was handed a considerable cheque from the British Gcnernmcnt by way of compensation for the indignity and suffering he endured in being brought all the way fiom New Zealand to Colchester on a charge of murder committed there by another man named Arthur Blatch in 1893.

"Though released at the request of the prosecution, who naturally could find no evidence against him, Mr Lillywhite had no legal claim against the Government : but the American authorities making ropip-pn-tations of the unique features of \u> (a c o, the British Government haw* made him reparation. 'It in,' he said, 'my wish to go back to New Zealand, and I belipvp that the Government intends to mkitp- me a passage; but aa for making arrangement-! myself, it fecms to me absurd. What guarantee have I got that in lialf an hour's time I shall not be arrested a'rain, this time in mistake for somebody else, and on a different charge? And it seems to me .a pity to hurry away from further chances of compensation. Apart from the mental distress I wan caused by my arrest in New Zealand, I suffered considerable physical discomfort. I wa* recovering from two broken ankles, and I did not feel that a convict prison v. as a suitable place for an invalid.'

"' ' They tell me,' continued Mr Lillywhite, growing grave, ' that I am fortunate in securing compensation ; but nothing can make up for what I have xindergonc. It is a terrible thing for an innocent man to find himself suddenly charged with such a crime, and then to hear witness after witness blackening one's character, till all my friends turned again st,5 t, me, thinking that I had been living a doubh life — a c oit of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde e\i--U>!ire My anxiety of mind deepened as ca<h clay went by till the day of my relea-c' "

Another London paper aKo nmailv-. with a great deal of force and justice : — " One would like to see the facile witnesses, whose too-ready testimony hi ought Lillyw hice's euffering on him, punished or mulcted in fcome w;y for their share in thia disgraceful t>usine a 3 The New Zealand |udiciary who assented to his extradition ha'Ne al-o an account to settla r/ith their coiL-cicnccs — v. c vo'.-.ld not say intelliKences "

Vil thoughtful people will cordially concur in di:s view It is strongly felt here that the Lillywhite :ase iias been a great public Fcandal, and ihat it is outr.-geous for a respectable man to be arrested, charged with «. capital offence, hauled all round the world in rustody, detained in prison for a lengthened peniod, and subjected to the indignity and harass of a. criminal trial upon grounds o flimsy as Uiose which existed in the case of Lillywhite. It is also felt that it -will be a furtheT grave scandal '£ the iialignant person or persons who started the persecution of Lillywhite bo manifestly to gratify soiue personal grv.dge Oi Mn'lictiVfiuesj ;hall be allowed *■*-"<> uupujuAked,

A large gathering took place at one of the chief sav> mills in town yesterday to witness the trial of a new patent for utilising sawdust and shavings for dri\iiig machinery in connection with mills. The sawdust and aha'sings are brought from the sawpit aud planing benches by means of a chain, an endless band revolving in an enclosure, haisting the refuse to the furnace-feeder on the top storey. The bars of the furnace being at an arrje of 45 degiec;-, *he pawdu-t, etc , follows down the flat bars, and as it burns it causes an intense heat, which passes over the budge and under an arch into the combustion chamber under the boiler, from where the ga^c^ pa=s through tubes and up the chimney, winch is 50ft high. Perfect combustion is obtained by thia system, which will burn wet sawdust or any rubbish, aud the trial was a great succe<=->. At a barquet subsequently Mr Jay intimated that in January and February of tins year he had exported 2.780,000 ft of sawn t.mbcr, and that the trade was rapidly increasing. Ten years ago the total export "was less than 500,000 f t: la^t year the total for the Coast wa« o\er 17,000,000 ft. and this year it would be over 20,000,000 ft. and fne supply was practically inexhaustible. At present 300 men were cmplovcd at the timber miils, and four additional mills were m course of ciect.on.