HOUNDBURN HILL DEVIATION

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 183, 6 September 1872, Page 5

HOUNDBURN HILL DEVIATION

(Toihe Editoroi the. MouNT Ida. Chronicle.) Sir,—ln your issue of last week I observe that "\Fairplay" has again addressed you on the subject of the Houndburn Hill deviation. It would appear t hat on reading Mr. Barr's report he has again sprung to life, and that he considers it his bounden duty to echo the voice of that thinking probably that by so doing he

rnav merit some sort off: (^oferjfinent "billet". • - : " -

He accusuff me of'having, in a letter addressed to you some two . months ago, : charged him with making " false statements" -regarding the road question. Now, I deny having made use of the words " false statements/- and if he refers to my letter, which- appeared in your issue of sth July lasij. he will find that h£ is mistaken, ami that v his bo,;sit:d.honor, after all; -i : 8 faulty— wanting, in the most; essential point viz., truth. What I said was, that his assertions were groundless, an ! misleading to peoplcat a distance.. lie dtmi<« t hi', however and challenges me io show how they were so.. W ell, l:accept< his challenge, ana though X. know not " i' s ? 1 will liofc wound " his feel ings by displaying ali the misstatements, he has made on the aoove question, i will content; myself by quoting one or two of them, which I trust will be sufficient to convince him that he has made such. He says " what good would the main road line passing through Naseby be'* to a Township -near the Taieri javer."" JNo,w strangers reading this must tMek: that a Township is springing up at th£ • Taieri river, and they must also think: tnat the Naseby peopleare extremelyselfish—not being content with themain road passing half-way between both Townships, but must- have it passing through their own Town, and Naseby doing an injury to the other. (Jt course we know there is no Town near-the Taieri river—--not even a single individual living within miles of the place, and not the.remotest chance of ever a Township being there. Again he writes of Naseby as a " Tottering Township:' Now he could hardly have said anything more incorrectand and at the same time more injurious!: to our Town than that. So far from, its being " tottering" it is steadily in-, creasing—a sludge channel and an increased water supply would doubt- 1 less quadruple the population, but j without these "Works JN aseby would-.'' hold her own, and for many years to come would not be a " tottering town-. ship." But let the above quotations suffice. They clearly -show whaif "Fairplay' i s capable of say ing and doing,. In regard to what he says about, my being somewhat wool-blind—not able to see the large paddofcks he talks of —I must say in return that if he calls ' those small enclosures around the two, publican's places by the roadside large • paddocks, his eyes must magnify suf- • ficiently great to see mountains in the. moon; but. ; I would recommend him, when' those paddocks again appear Bio extensive 1 , to try a bottle of soda water - Of course, as " Fairplay " says, the two roadside publicans deserve; some.., consideration along with others; but he surely does not think that the intetests of the whole community of Nase- : by are to; be sacrificed for two road- : side settlers, because I maintain when the memorialists' road is madeiras I predict it will be before long—no, interests shall suffer, and no partieswill be inconvenien ed : in the excepting those two settlers; ?

" f airplay" hints that : a goldfieli ? exists in the land/through which the." memorialists' road would pass, ahdT that I was mistaken in saying that i> was non-auriferous. lam very glad if I have been mistaken in this, and if a- * goldfield is likely to be discovered byi the roadmen 'it- is another reason, and, v a very strbng one, why the be commenced at once. r r '• • In conclusion, I irihst'Temind Mr. ' " Pairplay-" that the Government andtheir .officials only, exist, through the f— "short,, the people govern •... 1 if' the people of Naseby have hefto siibmitted to be"ehiselled out of their rights; - it does not follow that rthey are to submit to the same : process of " chiselling " in the future,.They have a perfect right to demand the construction ot the piece of road in question, even if it should be of no service to anyother section of the community. , : M

If.,time permitted I woul(J. reply more fully to your pedantic correspondent. As to what he says abftut my desiring to see roads closed: and people removed is quite inexplicable. t&< me. I have no interest in seeing —-I am, &c:,