CORRESPONDENCE.

Motueka Star, Volume IV, Issue 203, 31 July 1903, Page 4

CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor. Siq—A petition has been presented to the Governor praying for the release of Joseph Taylor, who is suffering in the Terrace gaol, Wellington, having been sentenced last year at Nelson to two 3-ears’ hard labor on a charge ot ,' altering three items involving £ 15 5s pounds five shilhngs) with intent to deceive, in the books of the Puponga Coal -and-Goid Mining Co., Limited, of which Mr Taylor was the attorney and general manager in this colony. The alterations involved no monetary loss to the Company, their only effect being to make the items chargeable to Mr Taylor in his private capacity. The petitions which declare Mr Taylor to be innocent have the significant feature of being signed not only by all the representative people ot Nelson, but also by the jurymen who convicted Mr Taylor, and by the present attorney of the Company, who started litigation against him, which was, at-w. later stage, saddled on to the Crown. Mr Taylor is a well known and highly respected mail, who laboured in England and Scotland as a Christinn minister, and afterwards as technical lecturer on coal mining to the Staffordshire County Council, and under the South Kensington Art and Science Department. On coming with his family to New Zealand, he was appointed by the Bishop of Nelson as Stipendary Lay Reader, and settled at the parsonage, at Collingwood, in charge of a missionary district. In this capacity he was free to pursue also his secular calling, and in addition to becoming a large land owner, he successfully took up gold and coal mining. During the last ten years he has been remarkably successful as a practical mining geologist in the neighborhood of Nelson, and he has used strenuous efforts (by means of lectures, pamphlets, etc.) to induce the Government to start works for the manufacture of iron and steel as a State concern. In his lecture in the Technical Institute, Wellington, four years ago (June, 1899), and again in a pamphlet entitled “New Zealand’s Iron Hope,” he maintained that fully two thirds of the two million pounds annually paid by this colony to foreign countries for iron and steel might be kept within the colony by putting down a plant adequate for the production of many of our own materials at an initial cost of ,£250,000. This he affirmed was the most effective solution of the problem of the unemployed, and it would enable the colony to complete its main trunk railways in the cheapest and most expeditious manner possible. A committee of local ironfounders was formed in Wellihgton with Mr Tayior and Mr Arnold, J.E., as secretaries, to bring the matter definitely before the attention of the Government, and it was in connection with this scheme (favorably regarded by the newspapers throughout the colony)that the Wairarapa Star described Mr Taylor as “the greatest benefactor in the colony.” As the result of heroic perseverance at Puponga, near Coilingwood, Mr Taylor | has made discoveries of many workable

suams of coal of the highest value in lela- | tion to both iron smelting, household, and : steaming purposes. His courage and skill I have in fact practically given to the colony a hew and important coalfield. This was stated in an address presented to Mr Taylor by the workmen on h ; s giving up the management of the mine. The Motueka Star recently published a letter from the Vicar of Colhngwood in which he said he hid seen nothing outside Westport and Brunner to be compared with the coal seams at Puponga, discovered and developed by Mr Taylor. Whereas former geological reports gave practically noihir.g worth working at Puponga, the Government geologist, Mr A. McKay, after visiting the mine in igoo, reported about fifty million tons of workable coal in the field, and the matter was mentioned in the Mines Statement laid before Parliament by the Hon. Minister of Mines. Since taking up a 400 acre coallease, Mr Taylor has both opened up a promising coal mine and connected it with a point of shipping some miles distant in Golden Bay by means of a costly railway and pier. Some years later a partnership was formed; and after much delay and uncertainty, this developed into a limited company. Practically the whole concern, with all its industrial possibilities, is the creation of Mr Taylor ; and whoever works Puponga Coal mine-will build the monument ot the innocent man who is now rewarded with imprisonment and chronic rheumatics. Since his imprisonment, Mr Taylor has sought through his solicitor, Mr Jellicoe, for permission to appeal; on the ground that there was no evidence to go to the jurj 7 , and that he was not in the service of the Company at the time the alterations were made. After much unnecessary delay, Judge Edwards has refused permission to appeal, on the ground that he has no jurisdiction to entertain the application : in spite of the fact that the 412 section of the Criminal Code provides that the court before which any accused person is tried may, either during or after the trial reserve any question of law, This has necessitated an appeal to the Privy Council in England which the papers are now on their W3.y lor. Mr Taylor also filed summonses against the Company claiming damages against the Company for malicious prosecution and non fulfillment of contract with him. Mr and Mrs Taylor have since sold their ' interest in the Company to the Company '"and withdrawn their actions against them in consideration of the Attorney signing for the Companv any necessary petition for Mr Taylor’s release and paying .£3,300 in cash.• It now remains for the Governor in Council to consider the petition that has been presented ; and it is earnestly to be hoped that the decision will be favourable ; because thereby part of the expense of the appeal in England may be saved by cabling, but also because Mr Taylor has already suffered what would be a severe sentence even if he were guilty, and in order to terminate a strained legal situation which will not bear careful scrutiny at any single stage. The facts and signatures speak for themselves. I am etc., Specs. Nelson. July 18, 1903.