LONGUET V. KINGS WELL.

Southland Times, Issue 2140, 25 June 1875, Page 2

LONGUET V. KINGS WELL.

TO TUB BDITOB OP THE TIMIB. Sir, — The verdict of the jury in the actien, Longuet against Kingsvrell, relative to alleged pollution of the water of the Waikiwi stream, opens up more important considerations than that of the mere question of the intereit of th« parties concer.ied. I was present in Court during part of the trial, and heard the judge's charge to the jury, and on the principle which every one must concede, namely, that after foreign matter has been introduced into a stream it cannot be avid to be in its natural condition, | probably the plaintiff was entitled to a verdict. | The jury has been evidently of this opinion, by the verdict of damages " one farthing," but the issue opened up by the verdict, is the alarming question, " How are public industries to be carried on ?" We are inviting immigration, but the verdict given destroys nearly all chance of the district ever being in a position to offer employment by way of developing the resources of the country, in the direction of manufacture or public industries. If the ruling of the judge be true, there is no defining the point at which any man in the neighborhood of a stream may or may not become liable to action for pollution. Any unprincipled, rapacious, and unscrupulous m» a owning or occupying water frontage can easily obtain suck evidence as will prove pollution in the legal sense, and a very wide door is opened to the harrassing of enterprise by all manner of extortions under the pretence of injury. That the jury believed that plaintiff had sustained no damage is evident, yet they were legally bound to give him a verdict, and in this case nominal damages to the plaintiff means heavy costs to the defendant. That any one should risk his capital in an undertaking requiring water frontage or water power seems, after Monday's verdict, by far too hazardous an undertaking to be expected. With all possible precautions against damage, the manufacturer of any kind i» ■wholly at the mercy of crafty schemers, holding that the chances of conviction »ud possible profit accruing, are too good to be lost. — I am, &c, Indtxstbx.