A REPLY TO A EEPLT.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 173, 1 June 1871, Page 7

A REPLY TO A EEPLT.

(To the Editor.)

Sir, — T have known men to utter falsehoods because they could not help it — it was a part of their nature. I have known other men to speal^ falsely for the love or fun of the thing ; and somo men fabricate falsehoods from a spirit of " gassino." Mr. Bradley, I think, belongs to the latter class; if not, he must be troubled witli a very defective memory. But if he is, other people are not so trouhled. It is well remembered here that Mr. Bradley put iv an appearance, for the first time, at the Wnikaka, about the hist week in August or the first we^k in September last, hard up. It is equally as well remembered that one Charles Connell took him into his hut and fed him, and also took him as a mate to work a claim ou the Shepherds Flat. It is "also remembered that Mr. Bradley visited the storekeeper for the purpose of purchasing, ou credit, tools, &c, wherewith to work, and the storekeeper declined to accommodate him, he being a stranger, and not known. Now, sir. the real prospectors, James Sinclair and Frank Fraser, had left the ground (whichis the subject matter of dispute) several weeks prior to all the above occurrences taking place. A letter appeared at the time of their leaving the run, in the " Bruce Herald," in which the writer stated that those men had found payable <;old, but that tho runholder, Mr. MTntyre, would not aPow them to work the ground, unless they allowed a friend of his to join them as a working mate. This they declined to do, for certain reasons of their own. James Sinclair and F,rank Fraser. | would" have contested the point with | the runholder as to his authority to" i force them off the run, but for the fact of there being little or no water to ; work with at the time. They at once removed to the inside of this goldfield boundary, intending to return when

water came, if they found nothing bettor in the mean time, but, fortun.xtolv for them, they found bettor ij round, and therefore troubled themselves no more about the other run. They mentioned the particulars to a number of miners, and Mr. Grilfoil, like a shrewd man (which he is), after having heard about the affair, started direct to the very ground iv question, taking with him Mr. Bradley, as he had at this time sold out of the claim on the Shepherds Flat, having worked there only a very short time indeed. That they obtained the gold in the time as stated by Mr. Bradley, I doubt not, but I fail to discover the truth in any other portion of his letter. I should not have felt myself called upon to reply to Mr. Bradley's letter (as the facts which I communicated in my former one are patent here) but for the weak-minded aud slanderous suggestions — for they are the suggestions of a weak-minded and brainless individual — which he has thrown out as to the mode in which I obtain my living. Ignorance, sir, ignorance, gross ignorance. For Mr. Bradley's information, I may state that I neither pay moonlight visits nor obtain my living by the sweat of other men's brows.

My old woman has just whispered in my ear the following soorbinj words: — "Yell! veil! dis man measure de odor people's corn vit'i his own bushel! No more mind him. Dis man no write de Inglais; no speak good de Inglais ; cue oder man write de letter. Gras, my old man, gas ! dis man, he blow de gas !"

That it is so, old ujirl, is quite possible, aud highly probable too.

I would advise Mr. Bradley to leave writing alone, and it" h.-. has any spare •time and cash, to prospect for a now goldfield. The country can do with one ; yea, the country wants one. If he is successful, then he will receive thanks, if nothing else, from the inhabitants of the country. In conclusion, if Mr. Bradley has anything further to say in tin's dispute, he can have your paper to himself, for I do not feel called upon either to soil another sheet of paper, or to waste my valuable time on so worthless an individual. — Yours as before, Truth a>*d Fair Plat. Waikaka, May 25, 1871 .