THE CULLIFORD COMPANY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 176, 28 July 1870, Page 2

THE CULLIFORD COMPANY.

To the Editor op the Nelson Evening Mvtl. Sir— l fully expected to have a stone or two thrown at me for venturing to assert that there was some reason in the action taken by tin directors of the Culliford Company in sending for a small battery with which to commence operations at the mine, but I little anticipated having to stand the brunt of so huge a projectile as that hurled at me with such fierceness by the flinty hearted " Petros," who, £ may say, appears to me to be the most egotistical newspaper correspondent I ever had the pleasure of meeting with, for I notice, and I have no doubt that your rrade.'Shave the same, that he does not adduce a single argument in favor of the positioa he has taken up, but simply asserts— l think this, and lam of opinion that so and so is the case, without giving us any authority for his assertions. For instanc, he says, " I have no hesitation in saying that the argument usei that it would be impossible to convey to the ground machinery of respectable distensions is simply a fallacy." Now, I should like to ask, who .3 this '' Petros" that he should venture to give so decided an opinion on a subject of this kind. Are we to take his dictum as final, and to believe that before his fiat the insuperable difficulties that are to be met with on the road will melt away ? He says, it is possible to convey to the ground pieces of ranchinery weighing 30 cwt., but I will tell you what the road is like, and t'uen you can form your own ideas as to the soundness of my opponent's opinion. The " road" consists of a side cutting some three feet in width and nearly as many feet deep in mui which is taken round the spurs, the angles being in some places so sharp as to render it almost, dangerous for a moderately loaded pack horse* and this is the road over whii -h " Petros" has no. hesitatiou in saying that cumbrous machinery can be carried. In fact the exiting roads are in such a frightful state that it has been seriously proposed to take the small two stamper ba„tery now on its way to that district, up the Wangf.peka river in a flat bottomed boat, rather than encounter the enormous obstacles to be met with, in the road, track, or series of mud holes (call it what you like), which now forms the only means of access to our western El Dorado. Again, says your correspondent, " even should a small amount of delay be incurred," &c. Why, Sir, this is what we all want to a veid; we are utterly and completely tired of delay; delay has been our ruin; delay lias produced the terrible depression under which the Province groans ; delay has caused what should have been a prosperous community to be one of the most wretchedly stagnant ou the face of the whole earth, and yet, when the directors propose to remedy this intolerable evil by affording the means ot fairly testing the district to which we are all looking with such eager eyes, they aro accused of being men whose ideas are more limited than those of any other set of hum? a beings in the country. Don't set a baby to do a man's work, says " Petros," I, on the contrary, sav that we have not yet arrived at maturity "and that we must learn to walk before we can run, aad therefore, to follow out his argument, it is necessary that we should begin on a small scale before entering upon undertakings of a larger and more serious nature than are adapted to our present circumstances. I repudiate altogether the insinuation that I have " drawu my inspirations froa. the directors." I have in no way whatever been influenced by them, nor have I had conversations with any of them on the subject, but what I have written is the result of my own honest convictions that the course adopted by the directors is the proper aud most advisable one. Public feeling is, I believe, against tlietn at the present time but I predict that before many months have gone by it will be generally admitted that they have exercise! a sound discretion in taking the action, which is now so loudly condemned. I am, &c, A Shareholder.,