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Dunstan Times, Issue 243, 21 December 1866, Page 2

The 'Nelson Evening Mail' says:— •' From statements that have appeared from time to time, in the Went Coast papers, respecting the negligence of the police authorities here in sending down Sullivan to give evidence against the supposed murderers of Mr Dobson, the public were led to believe that there was some foundation for the statement. It appears, however that the police authorities on the West Coast, have themselves solely to blame in the matter. They are the prosecutors of the murderers of Mr Dobson, and it was there duty to obtain the Judge's order or writ of ' habeas corpus,' without which Sullivan could not be removed from Nelson gaol. It is true that the >'elson police authorities held warrants for the rearrest of each of the men implicated in the Maungatapu murders, in the event of their being acquited on the charges preferred against them here, but on such warrant Millivan could not be removed from the custody of the gaoler. The West Coast papers were equally wrong in stating that the telegrams sent by the police to Nelson were not replied to. They were replied to the moment they were received and in the plainest manner. The mistake has arisen from the supposition that the Nelson police authorities have anything whatever to do with the prosecuting the murderers of Mr Dobson. It is understood that the West Coast police authorities have now applied to tho General Government for the removal ot Fullivau, and that a writ of 'habeas' or a Jndge's order has, been granted. It was their own fault this was not done long ago, and they seem to bo quite as easy in their mode of bringing the supposed criminals to justice, as they were in allowing a number of them to escape here, when they had a case of the strongest suspicion against thqm...