ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE

Wellington Independent, Volume XV, Issue 1413, 16 March 1860, Page 3

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE

(.To the Editor q£&he jiVeUington Independent.)

'- 1 '- , vVaiohine Bridge, Feb. JJS, 1960. : Slß,— ln yo«»v|ournal of the 25*h ult., Mr,J Jotitf H&ll ! a;i?d aJdocen otber Grey Town gents,' have done me the 'honor . to ' notice uiy letter: that appeared in your issue of the 3rd ult., and I have read with pleasure their communications., us it may lead to a free ventilation of a subject" that naturally affects' the welfare of more than une individual in this district ; and in the respect to the censure of Umpire Hull, and the twelve unbiassed gentlemen's production, I can only hope that it will have the desired effect ; I am only surprised at the lenience of their sentence, and may thank my stars that I am

not a •' Saunders," — yet I do think that my sentence, simple as it is, or may appear to be, viz., "enlighten the public," is an herculean ta|k to perform, compared with the trifling 1 fine of one shilling, therefore ft would have been more satisfactory to me to have been dealt \yith summarily, like the fighting magistrate at Ahuriri, and be fined " one shilling" than be called < upon to " enlighten the public," and if I should even make the sliirhtesfapproxiination to that desirable end, I do not see how it is passible to enlighten Judjje Hall and his twelve jurymen, and especially in a matter in which th.:y seem to have monopolised all the errors, if not the truth ; and if I am to do anything towards relieving myself from the onerous duty imposed upon me, it will he through your indulgence in giving space in your valuable paper, to a more circumstantial account of matters, so far as they ! have come to ray knowledge, connected with the fire either directly or indirectly, arid in ' fluenced parties to take the part that they have in the transaction, so as to enable the public to come to a fair conclusion ; and to do so it is necessary to place matters in a true light, and I shall have the business of placing the matter in a " new light," to 'my friend Hall, while I commit to paper such circumstances a& are fresh in my memory, bearing upon the subject. Upon the 21st January I observed a dense volume of smoke in the direction of Grey Town, upon the following day various rumours reached us about the fire, and a little before sun down a person named O'Connor was accused of having caused the fire ; I went over to Grey Town, the night was fast closing in at the time that I arrived in sight of the fire, which shed its lurid glare amidst the trees and dwellings. The school house on one side of the road, und Mr. O'Conner's house in a field upon the other side, seemed in great danger of being burnt, a number of persons were busy attempting to arrest the progress of the flames, fortunately a copious shower of rain fell soon after dark, which prevented the fire from cairying on its work of destruction. I entered p. house during the shower, and there learnt again that O'Connor was the incendiary, and Mr. Moles and others have ejected him from the meeting at the school house the preceding evening, charging him with the\crime, and threatening him with personal violence if he di.l not leave the school room. ' ' Upon the following morning, (Monday,) I again walked over to Grey Town, and looked over the property, or rather ground, upon which the fir« had destroyed the property, and after some little examination, there and then came to the unpopular conclusion that O'Connor had not set fire to the property, as no sana man in the circumstances and position of O'Connor would set fire to his own property ; nor did he seem sufficiently rabul,",to cut off his nose to be revenged of his face," yet he appeared greatly excited at being charged with a crime so injurious to himself, having no spiteful or revengeful feeling towards his neighbours, and there was no disguising the impression upon the mind of a great many of the Grey Town people, O'Connor was set down for the incendiary, and as a natural, or rather unnatural consequence, he was to be shunned, his house and property might burn, no assistance was ,to be afforded him. either in the reaping of his crops, or repairing of his fence ; his family was to be banished, and himself to be prosecuted to the utmost rigour of the law. The magistrate was sent for, and the fate of a tnau and his family seemed suspended by an hair. Anxious to learn the result of the magistrate's enquiry, and as they were not expected for several hours, and seeing about thirty persons engaged repairing Mr. Moles's fence, while there was only a man Mid his wife assisting O'Connor, I took up a sickle and committed the heinous offence of aiding O'Connor to reap his wheat, until the J.P.s had terminated their enquiry. The persons who conducted the'exami* nation were Capt. Smith, J.P., M P.C., S. Revans, Esq., J.P., and Messrs. Bidwell, Valentine Smith, Esq., and a few others. The enquiry took place at Mr. Moles's residence, and nt its termination I learnt from one of the J.P/s that " there tvas no evidence fo establish a eaie" and I also learnt that one young lady who gave evidence, had been "struck" with wonderful powers of sight, as she could not only clearly recognise peisons at a distance of half a mile, i but the organ of vision had become so powerful, that it enabled her, to see through mounds of earth, and a dense forest of trees ; yet with " Hall* her power of sight, she could not see well enough for the magistrate's to place any confidence in her welt trained testimony. The charge against O'Connor having thus broke down; it seemed only reasonable to expect that the excitement would cool down also ; so as to allow some reasonable construction to be put upon the origin of the fire, as no evidence has yet appeared to shew that it was a malicious act, or that there is any thing of an incendiary character attributable to any party, but so far from tho decision of the magistrate's abating the excitement, Mr. Moles arid his pariizans became more exasperated. The fire is not only set down as a malicious act, but £50 reward is offered for the conviction of the ofiender, and O'Connor is openly accused of the crime. Sir, finding that I am already drawing lo the en' 1 of a second sheet, and fearirig to ocfcu* ny too much of your valuable space; yet I have been irresistibly led to. sketch a few figures of the comforts attending a rural, or rather village life in the Wairarapa. Not that every village in the distiict can boast of its number of talented, liberul, and enlightened little big men, that Grey Town cau; or are Featherston, Carterton, or Masterton, in any way to be compared with it for showing how facts can exceed fiction, and prove where the mental growth has not kept jiace with the growing prosperity of a community, it engendeis a disease that in com. mon parlance might be called uuneigJibourl but in the scientific world will be remembered as the Grey Town hysteria. Sir, I now- ask the favour to have the following docuufeusl published, as they hare been handed to mfe^it that purpose, and us I am extremely d*esJraitHo conciliate Umpire John and his twelvajlftliajjgnes,! hope that the in for •nation the«£in.pi>!M*ined will have. the desired effect, yet if aH^ftat Jtain doing should fail to appease the aMW^B^I* deities, I can only see fekffiiin,uier. of h J|^io Ahe mind of a generous I^^, and to tJApirVJohn and the Grey Tun ft * uucj; one gxjiijdiloqiient iuTocatiuu—•^XeT^llage^ls. B?TO»teitul." ■ ' i - ... 4i£&ia,,Si^'-^Ui'» 'respectfully, ."';. . ' .- : . s ' '■■<■■'■-■'. ' John Abhmobe. :