COLLINS’S PICK.-NO. 2.

Cromwell Argus, Volume VI, Issue 311, 27 October 1875, Page 6

COLLINS’S PICK.-NO. 2.

0. P. Seeks Legal Advice.

Cape Squally, Kawarau, October 22, 1875. Sie, —Tom and I convened a meeting of ourselves last Monday evening to consider a difficulty concerning our quartz reef, and we agreed to get legal advice. For this purpose my mate travelled next morning. The result I now give you in strictest confidence. Tom is responsible for the truth of the particulars. Hear it, then, in his own words:— “On arriving at old Thingymejig’s stables, I asked the groom who was the best lawyer knocking about ? Says he : ‘ I think Ginger is the smartest cove, for he often comes in our bar and talks law, and the lot of long words he uses with foreign lingo would astonish you ; and he always winds up with, “Bill, have a drink; but mind, no heeltaps.” I believe that man is the cleverest chap in these parts.’ So I took Bill’s advice, and knocked at the side-door of a queerlooking sort of a building. It looked all the world like a house made to go on wheels. I heard afterwards from Bill that it was built to run on Block IX., to be shifted at a moment’s notice. I heard a voice inside say, ‘ Come in ;’ but it was easier said than done, for the handle would not work the latch, and a knife inside had to be applied. When I entered, I felt just as I used when I was a boy, and had to go to the dentist’s ; but the gentleman soon made me feel quite easy. He begged me to be seated on a box all handy like, and took my hat ; said he knew me quite well, and asked if the gold in ray claim was looking pretty well? Says I: ‘ Yes, thankee, sir ; it looks pretty well when it is there, lam much obliged to you.’ Says he, —Is it coarse or fine gold you are on ? I told him sometimes one and sometimes the other, just according. He asked me if I had a mate ? I told him in course I had you, at which he said he knew you quite well too. I think he knows everybody in the country, I then told him we had discovered a quartz reef in our alluvial claim, and wanted to know if we could lawfully hold both at the same time, the one being, so to speak, inside the other. Says I: * Would the quartz reef grant interfere with the claim grant, or the other way, as we do not want to lose the claim, d’ye see ?’ ‘ Oh,’ says he, ‘ I see your case quite plainly. I had a brief for a similar case when 1 was doing business in Deadhorse Gully, Mount Elephant. It was considered by the Supreme Court the most complicated one ever brought before it. The case was stated thus A line of quartz reef washed off by a number of men ran through .an alluvial claim the property of another party, who contended—amne mqjus continet se minus— that the reef, so far as it ran through the boundaries of the alluvial claim, belonged to the alluvialists. The ground was rich, and the trial protracted. There were three lawyers on each side. Eventually 1 believe the reef and claim were sold to pay expenses, and the men went to some other place to try their luck. But it was a splendid case, and Mr A., whom I advised, gave me £SO for my trouble in working up law points. Your difficulty is very similar, and I think I can pull you through. Just mark off your quartz claim, and apply for it without reference to your alluvial claim, and get a certificate; and if anyone tries to jump your present claim, we will make up a case in equity. Your long tail-race, the number of years lost in bringing in a race, the £IOOO you have spent without returns ’ ‘But,’ says I, ‘ we have done very well, sir, in our alluvial claim.’ ‘ Never mind that,’ says he, ‘ that will be for the other side to find out. We will only enumerate our hardships. Gains in such cases are always concealed by the legal maxim, Not a bene, nil desperandum; and if our weak point is discovered, we will argue a law point to stick to the reef, and appeal if we lose, so that you can get all you can out of the alluvial in the meanwhile, and secure the reef claim,’ I thanked him kindly for his advice, and was just going, when he said : ‘ Your case is a very troublesome one, but as you and your mate are old friends of mine, I will take you through it if it comes to a law case for five guineas, and I think I will not charge more than a guinea just now, and five shillings for entering up the case.’ I thought this very considerate and kind of him, and gave him a note and a half sov., which he put into his breeches pocket. He did not give me any change, but asked me if I would have a glass of wine. I thanked him, and we went down to one of the publics, where he shouted for us both. I felt quite proud to be seen drinking with such a swell as had had one time fifty pounds for a case like ours. Ho is not exactly what they calls a full-fledged lawyer, I believe, though ho said he was all the same, except that he was not registered in this country. He did not give me any change, but 1 suppose he forgot it, and I thought it would be mean to remind him. And he behaved just like a gentleman : sent his kind regards to you, calling you Mr Pick, and shaking hands with me, all in my moleskins and jumper. Do you think, Collins, we should send him the five guineas just to work up our case, as he calls it ?”

When Tom had finished speaking, I took ray pipe out of ray mouth, and said quietly ; “ The next time, Tom, we want legal adyice, 1 think it will be ray turn to go.” So no more at present from Yours truly, Collins Pick.

P.S.—You want me to tell you sometimes about the river, —its rise and fall._ Well, just nowit is going down, and if it is not stopped, 1 believe it will go on down until it roaches the Paoifio Ocean. —O.P.