CORRESPONDENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 63, 13 March 1880, Page 1

CORRESPONDENCE.

" WHO STOPS THE WAY ? " To this Editor op the "Evening- Mail." g IR j'or a long time I have been accused of •* stopping the road "in this district. As there are five sections between this and where the ioad has just been completed, through which the road has not been made, I think such an accusation, without further explanation, may be termed the " lie direct." ; It is hardly likely that I should allow six or seven acres of laud to be cut up by all kinds of traffic for three years without the slightest conipersatioa or acknowledgement ; or that I should have sold my two head of cattle and horse because they should not annoy my neighbors, and all this from the neglect of the men chosen to look after the interests of the public. The Board never has asked my permission, but sent men to . construct a bridge on this property for the , convenience of that public who now accuse me of "stopping the way." I ask any 1 persons in the habit of travelling this way, if they would allow their land to be cut up for, anybody's convenience. Those who have, made most use of the track through here ' now tell me that if I had stopped the road ati once, and allowed no one to pass, it would have been better. : In my instructions to the solicitor, on. receipt of th» Board's offer, I particularly desired him to come to terms with the 1 Board without litigation, which I am sure that he did. I likewise informed the Secretary that I merely Bent it to a lawyer as he could construe an Act of Assembly better .than I could. The main point, at issue between us was the price for fencing and the keeping in repair of the same. The fence, so far from being of any service, will be a perpetual nuisance. I appeal to all honest 1 men to say whether it is just that I should keep as much or more fencing in repair for, fifty acres as some of my neighbors for five hundred ? If the Act allows such an injustice, the sooner {it is altered the better. I may mention that two years elapsed before; the Board sent in their terms, so that I kept the road open for the use of the public at a loss of at least twenty pounds sterling per annum. ! I read Goldsmith's " Good-natured Man " when a boy; had I read it later in life, per-, haps I might have " stopped the road." I should not have troubled you with this explanation had such gossip been confined to this neighborhood, but having been told that . I was the culprit by. the highest authority in Nelson, I have thought it due to myself and friends to give it, an \ to give the lie to any or all who in future make such an asserJ tion.— l am, &c., E. Tucker. ; Pangatotara, March 1, 1880. f