CORRESPONDENCE.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume III, Issue 317, 20 October 1875, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

:o: Our columns are open for free discussion; but we do not hold ourselves responsiblefor the opinions of our Correspondents. :o: TO THE EDITOR.

Sir, —Perceiving that that most recent importation from our American cousins, the “ Spelling Bee,” has acquired great popularity elsewhere ; and believing that we. have in our community, all the elements for carrying out similar instructive and amusing entertainments, I venture to suggest that the people of Gisborne should indulge in a “ Bse” of their own. With this view it would be desirable that a subscription should be initiated to provide the necessary literary prizes for the successful competitors, so that the project might be carried to a satisfactory issue. The “ Bee” should be open to all comers, and the awards subject to the usual method of adjudication. A trifling charge of admission might be made, so that in the event of the subscriptions not being found to be adequate for the prizes, the deficiency might be made up from the admission money.—Yours, &c., Altha. Gisborne, October 18, 1875.

A WHALE CASE.

A case of considerable interest was disposed of at Tokomaru, on the Bth inst., before J. H. Campbell Esq., Resident Magistrate of Waiapu and Karailiana and Hotini assessors. Mr. Thomas Fox, of Waipiro, sued Henare Potae, of Tokomaru, for the sum of £l5O being the value of a whale, the property of the plaintiff, and illegally appropriated by the defendant. It would appear that a whale was caught, last winter, somewhere on the Coast, between Waipiro, and Tologa Bay, by the crew of a boat fitted out and manned by Mr. Fox, and that Henare Potae, who was also engaged in whaling pursuits at the same time, had cut uj> the fish for the purpose of converting it into oil in the usual way —thus taking a liberty with another man's property which he ought not to have done and which, of course, could not be regarded as a lawful action. Mr. Fox applied to Henare Potae for the value of the whale which he refused to pay—hence the action. Potae produced two witnesses at the trial, but their evidence seemed to have done him more harm than good —the balance of testimony being in favor of Mr. Fox. The court gave a verdict for the plaintiff for £lOO, with £7 for, expenses. The decision is regarded as n most just one.