CORRESPONDENCE

Poverty Bay Independent, Volume I, Issue 40, 25 August 1885, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE

MORE GRAVEL. To the Editor of the P. B. Independent. Sir, —Had a dynamite bomb been exploded in our midst on Friday last it could hardly have caused more sensation than did the decision of our R.M. in the gravel case. It must be patent to all that “ some one has blundered/’ The judgment was certainly not in accord with either law, equity, or justice, not to speak of the evidence. Here we have the evidence of the majority of twenty-five witnesses, all reliable men, whose avocations have compelled them to have a thorough knowledge of the river and points in dispute, as against four or five who were taken to the spot on a particular day (in the winter, mind you, when everybody knows that the river is quite fresh, and the flow of tide is not perceptible). One of them wades into the water, and dips up a bottle of water which is fresh at the shallow part. Why did he not go into the channel and make a fair test, where he would have found it salt, and also flowing up. Then, how do we know’ that the tide was flowing at all ? Men living miles away from the river at this place are not in the habit of studying the tides much. Another point brought out proat the decision was the board.off dray. Now, I ask any sensible man who knows anything of the river, how could the board have been washed out of the dray and up the river unless it had been in lite deepest part ? It is considered by not a few that our R.M. went considerably out of his way to cast an imputation on the credibility of defendant’s witnesses, which, to say the least of it, exhibited “bad taste." In effect, the judgment was that they had purjured themselves. Then, again, sir, the most important point of all in the judgment—“ It has not been proved that the Crown has any right to the gravel.” Neither, I beg to submit, w’as it proved that Clark had any right. So far from that, it was most emphatically proved by Messrs. Barnard and Winter that the boundary line of the block is some chains above the point in dispute, and that the acreage named in his Crown grant is perfectly intact at the present moment. However, wait a bit, till the month of December or January next ; I will make one to bear the expense of taking the R.M. out to the bridge, when he will see for himself that the tide flows some distance above it. This excursion will be more in keeping with his duties than the “oil spring business.” I could say a deal more on this subject, but will leave it to others more immediately interested. Apologising for so far trespassing on your valuable space, I am, &c., Fair Play.