WARDEN'S COURT, AHAURA.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1093, 29 January 1872, Page 2

WARDEN'S COURT, AHAURA.

Thursday, January 25. (Before Mr Warden Whitofoord.) Thomas Thomas v. Samuel Samuels and others. — This was an action for damages for illegally interfering with the complainant's head-race at Jerry's Gully, Moonlight Creek, and fjr having forcibly cut off the complainant's supply of water, whereby he had been thrown out o2 employment and suffered serious loss. The plaintiff claimed LIOO. This dispute, in different forms, has been before the Court for months. The complainant claims to be in legal possession of several hundred yards of the bed of Jerry's Creek, which he holds either as a head-race, a tail-race, or an alluvial mining claim. Qther parties are taking in head-races in the locality, and from the position of the plaintiff's claim, being in the bed of a natural watercourse, they must of necessity interfere with him, and as he is notoriously fond of litigation, a case is stated for the opinion of his Worship on the slightest pretext, or the merest provocation. At the last hearing of the case it was tried before the Warden and four assessors, and the verdict was nominally given for the present complainant with Is damages, but an order was made with reference to a tail-race, which virtually gave the defendants a victory. It was now sought to be proved, that by reason of the defendants' act in cutting a tailrace in the vicinity of the head-race of the complainant, they had drained the water away from his race, , ?nd for the consequent loss of time be claimed the above damages. The defence was a total denial of the complainant's allegations, and an assertion that instead of the defendants obstructing or injuring the complainant, or preventing the prosecution of his work, he was a constant annoyance to the defendants. One of them described himself as being in a chronic state of terror, from a habit the complainant had of wondering about and haunting the defendants at their labor and at their pastimes, by day and by night. : He "appeared" to them at the most unexpected places and times, and in the most unaccountable manner. . Another of the defendants, an ancient mariner from the Isle of Sky, informed the Court, in confidence, that "Hersel was no afraid o' onything livin'," by which he would seem to infer that there was something supernatural in the manifestations of the complainant. After a long hearing, a verdict was given for the defendants, with L 4 2s costs and professional costs. " . : Muldoon and party v. P. Hayes and others.— This was an action for L3O, damages for swamping the complainants out at Half-Ounce. The parties held adjoining e'aims, and the defendants discontinued underground work and diverted the water which used to supply the motive power to their water-wheel to other purposes/ among them that of sluicing on the surface. The ostensible cause of action was that the ■ defendants' tail- water ran into the complainants' workings and flooded them out, but the actual reason evidently was to compel the defendants to continue working their wheel and pump, for without them it was stated the complainants' machineiy was not powerful euough to drain their claim. The complainants agreed to purchase the defendants' machinery and water rights for L2O, and the case was withdraw j. The Courts were adjourned to Ist February. .... . : . : •