ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

Patea Mail, Volume IV, Issue 408, 15 March 1879, Page 2

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

[We are at all times ready to give expression to every shade of opinion, but in no case do we hold ourselves responsible for the sentiments of our correspondents.] (To the Editor of the Patea Mail.) Sir, —It’s an old saying—that wonders will never cease. So it was a wonder yesterday at Waverley when the Judge of the Assessment Court took a week before bo would give bis decision in the case of the County Council and the Wairoa Highway Board’s valuation. First of all it was shown plainly by the Chairman of the Board that the Council had no standing in Court; besides their witnesses proved themselves, especially the two first called, to have no more knowledge of the value of land than a schoolboy. When they were questioned as to the nature of land, they did not know anything about it. They had merely ridden along the road and valued the land by viewing it from afar off, as one of the holy men viewed the promised land. Even the valuer for the Government had not examined the properties he was valuing. He had bush and gullies on land where they were never known to be before. Had it been any other Court, surely be would have been ordered to sit down, as his evidence was not to be relied on. When he came to my place as Government valuer, I wanted to show him over the farm, but he said he did not require to go over it, as he had been all over this country thirteen years ago. Still, when asked in Court what quality of land was on it, he did not know. Whereas the Highway Board upheld their valuation by the evidence of a great many practical men, and could have brought forward fifty moie were it required. Yet the Judge required a week to consider the matter. What would any district come to, if every thing was to be upset by a lot of know-nothings, or if a Judge, was to pay any heed to local bodies that" were composed, of a lot of donkies, with a Jackass heading them, — I am, &C., • SCAPEFELDP. Waverley, March-ißth, 1879-

TIJe LATE MR 0. W.'HALL. Tile Tasmanian Mail, in. a notice of Mr C. W., Hall, who recently passed away at Wanganui, says:—He was.a son of the late Mr John; Hall, who died (n 1876, at the mature ago of 84, and who was formerly proprietor of the Hobart Town Advertiser , in conjunction with Mr Benjamin O’ Neile Wilson, the present Usher of the Black Rod. Mr 0. W. Hall commenced business in 1837 as a compositor on the True Colonist and Murray s Review. He was at the life ami death of the Advertiser newspaper, having gone to the Advertiser on its establishment, as employee; on the retirement of his father from the partnership, deceased became joint proprietor of the . Advertiser with Mr Wilson, and subsequently, on Mr Wilson retiring, a new'partnership was formed, consisting of Messrs C. W. Hall and J. C. Hall. During the time the Advertiser was at its zenith. Mr C. W, Hall took a considerable interest in politics, and in public matters generally. This was especially the case in the time of Sir William Denison, twenty-five or thirty years ago, when the colony was kept in a constant state of excitement by the agitation respecting the transportation question, the Governor being in favour of its continuance. but a great number of the colonists being supporters of the antitransportation movement. The Colonial Times being the energetic supporter of the abolition movement, the Advertiser was the equally strenuous supporter and advocateof the Governor’s views. When some years later, the, Advertiser ceased to exert much influence in the community, the new constitution in the meantime having been introduced and established, the paper fell into other hands, and some ten years ago Mr C. W. Hall proceeded to New Zealand, with the Press of which colony he became actively identified. At the time of his death he was connected with the Press at Carlyle, near Wanganui, and he died after a short illness, at the age of 56, leaving six children, most of whom are grown up, and hold respectable positions. His eldest son is Mr Charles Joseph Hall, a member of the legal profession, who served hisanicles with Mr Laughton, solicitor, Hobart Town, but is now in good practice at Torquay, North West Coast, having been enrolled in January, 1874.