THE MAYOR’S COURT.

Evening Star, Issue 3149, 24 March 1873, Page 2

THE MAYOR’S COURT.

To the Editor.

Sir —I observe in your issue of the 22nd a letter signed “ One who Knows,” in which the wnter quotes the following passage from my letter auent the Mayor’s Court: —“The reason this amount was not paid during Mr Birch’s time, to which it refers, is that Mr B. appropriated the whole of the fees and fines until I became Mayor, when the General Government having discovered this, compelled us to disgorge,” and from this appears to imagine that I intended to convey the impression that Mr Birch had put the fees and fines during his period of office into his own pocket. How “ One who knows” can have come to this conclusion I am at a loss to imagine : when I spoke of Mr Birch appropriating the fees, I spoke of him in his capacity of Mayor, and in relation to his connection with the Corporation. Had your correspondent read my figures, he muse have seen the amounts credited to the Mayor’s Court, which, if they had been appropriated in any other way, wmuld not have been the case. This appears to me to be so apparent that I had some doubt as to the necessity of answering the letter; but in order to relieve the mind of “ One who Knows” from a false impression, which is, however, totally unwarranted by the remarks quoted, I ultimately deemed it as well to do so.—l am, &c,, H. S. Fish, Jun. Dunedin, March 22nd.