"THE NEVIS WRONGED."

Dunstan Times, Issue 229, 14 September 1866, Page 3

"THE NEVIS WRONGED."

TO THE EDITOR OF THE DUNSTAN TIMES. Sib, - Tn your last issue, I perceived by your Nevis correspondence that the inhabitants of that district are great y dissatisfied with the Government for depriving them of police protection, and an " officer in ■charge." Your correspondent broadly hinted that Mr Fyke entertained a strong dislike towards the Nevis district, or rather I presume the people of it, and also, that it was more than suspected that he lid something to do with the remova; of Mr Anderson as officer in charge, and Mr Daly as officer of the' Police. I am disposed to state that there is a laughable amount of absurdity in supposing that Mr Pyke has much time or inclination to dislike the Nevis people, to the extent supposed by your correspondent and some oi hi suspicious neighbours. I do not for a moment hesitate in stating that the "spring, source, and fountain-head"-..0f the .removal of the officers referred to, was the tone in which Mr Anderson, as officer in charge, wrote his monthly reports to the

Government Although a -Huu&tofiU%7£ i have marked well the reports sent from a the Nevis, and it was-rarely indeed, that I found one of them- minus..tLe_term 1 "sorry," The writer,, a$ a general rule, i had-to feel ".sorry".'to state .that the claims i on -the. flat,had bee/i flooded, or thatseye- J ral of the residents "hacFteft for the West 1 Coast, or some othei\draw-baek on the district which I .c nncit. at, -the present t moment name. I may'however state that i I consider on the whole Mr Anderson - had felt more sorrow gnawing liis mind in connection with the affairs of the Nevis, than the aggregate grief of the widows and orphans made by. the .late civil war in the American States. I am thoroughly • coiwinced in my own mind, that Mr • nderson ' wrote" himself and Mr Daly out of .the Nevis, and that the Government u wi-onged that district by depriving it of the government-officers to which it is un- ' questionably entitled, solely througli paying over-attention to the dismal reports forwarded by the late.officer in charge. . I do hot for a moment advocate glowing reports, when there are no grounds whatever for well-speaking; but Ido hold that v it is the duty of -a government-oflicial to report the favorable features of the district c in which he may reside, as we 1 as the bad ones, but if he neglect to do so, the v Government are bound to grow iudiiferent to the just lequirements of such t ,and a3 a matter of course tl»e district must suffer wrong proportionately. M r Anderson, I am informed, is again to hold the same office at once in the same district, and if the numerous residents would take advice—let them read all C future reports carefully, and should the term'" sorry" be observed in them too frequently, when the cold weather of next winter sets in, and no real cause for sorrowing be in existence, let them protect to the Government .against such damag ing reports in the strongest language t at their command. The Nevis is so far ( situated from the camps of Clyde and i Cromwell, that police services cannot pos- a silly be obtainable in cases of emergency, and as there are drhiking-men there as wellas n allother diggings, drunken disturbances must naturally occur, and it is not supposable that honesty is more general I there than at any other place, therefore the presence of a police-officer is imperatively .required on the spot. 1 rnn well acquainted with every mining district in this part of the Province, and 1 do not know of any spot more entitled to policeprotection than the Nevis. There is a population of considerable extent and much property at all times in the various stores and hotels, consequently the Government as a matter of common justice should never allow a place of so much mining and social importance to remain uncaied for by officers of its own ap J point men t, —Yours, &c. Observer.