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West Coast Times, Issue 344, 30 October 1866, Page 2

TO THE EDITOB OF T^IE WEST COAST TIMES.) Sir — ; Whilst the perusal of your paper affords me as a general rule, very pleasant rela.xations from Ihe care and anxiety of daily business, that of yesterday Was productive of a terrihle shock, which the apprehension for one's eye sight might well cause. I feel satisfied that you will sympathise with me, if you but grant m,e space to explain. On the 24th inst. I had a ca9e in the Resident Magistrate's Court, and on the following morning I very naturally looked for the report of it in the list of civil case 3, when to my surprise I could not find it, and then it was that the horrible idea of mj eyesight being impaired shot across my mir 0.. At the first impulse of vrj fright I ran to * neighbor of mine, got him to read the same list over again, and was greatly relieved on finding that he too, could not discover my name nor that of the defendant. It was clearly an innocent oversight, and after hearing the particulars of it' you will doubtless agree with me that nobody could possibly have had the slightest interest in its be>ng denied publicity. On Saturday, the 6th instant, I went to the clerk's office on purpose to take out a summons agaiqst a par{y at Hau Hau, but the clerk being out, Mr Cooper, the assistant bailiff, told me that he would get the Bummons on Monday, the case to be. heard the following Thursday week, the 18th instant, On stating that it was desirable for me to have the hearing of the case on the next Thursday, the 11th, Mr Copper intimated that if necessary he might manage that, provided he would get the serving of the summons which would cost me LI To loose no. time, I agreed to that, and paid the sum demanded. Fortunately Mr Cooper then remembered that he had in the office a blank^ form signed by the Magistrate, so the summons' was there and then filled up, and I had done my business very satisfactorily indeed. Having returned from a trip to Rosstown, I met Mr Cooper on Tuesday, the 9th inst., when he informed me that the bailiff of Kanieri had tried to serve the summons, but did not find the party at home. I replied, that the defendants, having an open business, which is always attended to by at least one of them, and they being well known in the locality, the statement of that bailiff looks much like ft fabrication. As, however, Mr Cooper had already issued another summons for the 18th instant, and promising me to have it properly served this time, I said no more about it. On the Fric'ay p-eceding the 18th, saw Mr Cooper again, \r ,en he told me that he had no reply from the Kanieri, nor had h.e on the day following, when lie said that I was rather over anxious about that summons. In the afternoon of the same day, however, I met Mr Cooper again, when he informed me that the . Clerk of the Court at Kanieri was in town, and had told him that my summons had been duly served. At last ! thought I ; but vain idea. On Tuesday, the 16th inst., Mr Coopor brought mo an H.M.S. envelope, containing the everlasting summons — it had been returned to him from Kanieri without; auj

remark. Mr Cooper himself found that very wrong indeed 5 and in reply to my demand, wild, " Oh, of course yojf must get back your LI." r As regardß the summons, that was served the same day of its return by my young man, who found the pavty without any difficulty, and who, moreover^ was told by them that no bailiff had ever been there on my behalf. On my again applying to Mr Cooper for reimbursement of the Ll, he said he would first, have to see the bailiff at the Kanieri about it. I thereupoirthought it best to introduce the whole matter to his Worship, which I did on the 24th instant, when the Magistrate decided against me, on the ground that he was not satisfied that the Kanieri bailiff did not attempt to serve the summons. In my ignorance, I tlwight that services ought to be paid for only when performed ; but I am thankful to know wow that people must be paid for mere attempts at services also, for I am now going to pretend doing all sorts of services for people, and if they dare to refuse paying, why Pll bring them straightway? before our Resident Magistrate, -who, of course, will do as much for me as he has done for the bailiff only the day before yesterday. Before concluding', I must not omit to treat you to an account of the trifling expenses I had when I was in the Hokitika Palace of Justice. ??or a very strongly suspected attemptatthe service of a summons £10 0 Issueofsame 0 7 0 Silly effort of mine to recover the above £1 by means of another summons against Mr Cooper ... 0 4 0 Subpoena for Clerk ol Court tp produce original summons, which showed from the affidavit that no bailiff ever served it O 1 0 Disturbing the Clerk, causing him to move all the' distance from his desk into witness-box, in order to produce said sum* ions (I had quite a bargain) 0 10 0 Hearing of the case 0 3 0 £2 5 0 I am, &c, James Hihsoh. llevell street, Oct. 26, 18G6. fJWe regret that the above letter was omitted in our yesterday's issue, and also that a aimuar oiunder occurred in the report aljuded to.— Ed. W.C.T.] ' ' •

"We understand from our Grey cpn temporary that a new rush has taken place up the Grtj to a terrace which borders the Totara Flat. The prospects are encouraging, and it is confidently anticipated that the gold will p3 graced down on to the flat itself. Ako, that intelligence of a conflicting character con tinues to be received concerning the Pakihi diggings. We were yesterday shown a parcel of 12 ozs. of rough scaly gold, brought down by two men, who report very favorably of the rush, and state that a rumor was prevalent when they left on Thursday, to the effect that gold had been struck in payable quantities eight miles to the sou bward of the Pakihi rush. Supplies at the Pakihi were becoming scarce, particularly tools, which were barely pbtainable.