CORRESPONDENCE.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1251, 19 January 1883, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

TO THE EDITOR. Sib, —I see in Tuesday’s date January 16th, a letter signed “ Tiki.” I think the interpretation of this word “ Tika,” is truth. lam sorry to have to contradict a portion of “ Tika’s ” letter. Mr W. Cooper had nothing whatever to do with the opening of the Tupama Road in any way. Also I think if “ Tika ” will recol ect it was Mr Wm. Clarke who negotiated the Rotokautuku lease, with t»<e assistance of Mr J. Carrol, Licensed Interpreter. For some years this Rotohiutuku Oil Block was lying idle waiting for some one to do something with it. After a gnat many people had been to see this block, at different times, Mr Wm. Clarke arrived there, and since then I will leave it to the pnblic to judge for themselves what has been done.—l am &c., A Loveb of Tbvth.

Sib,— -In answer to the silly question put by ** Tikarer” (he does not venture to contradict the facte stated) I reply if Mr Clarke’s friends choose to give him a dinner as a token of their private esteem, it is no business of any persons outside that limited circle, but when the general public are invited to subscribe, and when “ His Worship the Mayor” is advertised as the Chairman, and when both newspapers state that a public dinner is to be given to Mr Clarke in recognition of his services in promoting the oil industry, and as a Borough Councillor ; then I think it is quite open to ask what those services are to their value. Mr Clarke has made a pot of money out of oil, and now when share jobbing is quiet he is “up sticks.” I suppose that the dinner ; is given on the Scriptural principle, “To ■ him that hath much snail be given,” Mr Clarke has been Managing Director of j the Southern Cross, that company is little ' nearer oil than it was 12 months ago ; its ; shares can be purchased for a quarter of the i cash paid for them. How is that for high? The Pacific is emancipated from Mr Clarke's influence. It is working well, and in a manner satisfactory to its shareholders, i Is the Borough any better for Mr Clarke’s three months’ services ? I trow not. Can any one say what he has done for us except try and turn out on flimsy pretences an old and experienced engineer, to make room for a new one who is a friend of his own. Mr Clarke attended well at the Council says one. Yes, but he seldom stopped long. The Borough will be put to the expense of another election, and—good-bye Mr Clarke. 1 —I am, Ac., Totika. Gisborne, January 18, 1883. [We publish the letter above in accordance ■ with our rule, which is, that the name of the 1 writer must be forwarded. To our mind, 1 however, it appears that there is a “little j something” behind which has occasioned a nastiness. “Totika” may be right in some ! things for ought we know, but in others we ! are positive he is wrong.— Ed. P.B.S.]

To The Editor

Sir, —I have seldom seen in print so barefaced, and deliberate a falsehood as that made use of by Mr Wm. Clarke, in stating that he was connected with the first petroleum works in New Zealand, at Taranaki. Now sir, as lam one of the two now living, of the five men who began, and solely carried on the first oil boring and prospecting at Taranaki, which we worked for three years, wholely at our own cost. I can prove that Mr Clarke’s name was never heard of there. Our works were called the “ Alpha ” and our grant of 50 acres, which we held from the Government, contained all the surface indications of oil then known in Taranaki. There were two other Companies ; started there two years later, one called the | “ People’s Company ” and the other the “ Taranaki Company,” who leased part of our ground, and Mr Clarke was not connected with either of these companies. I may further state that the experience was not as stated by Mr Clarke, for the deeper we went the more oil we got. I challenge Mr Clarke to describe any thing in connection with oil boring in Taranaki. Mr Clarke repeatedly told me, in Sydney, how pleased he was at the prospect his arrangements with me gave him of seeing New Zealand, of which he had heard so much, but never saw. I can name a gentleman in Gisborne who worked for us at the “ Alpha ” and who will prove that Mr Clarke was never seen, or heard of, in connection with oil works during the three years of oil working at Taranaki. Mr Clarke’s statement is in keeping with the statement he made in a Wellington paper, which is equally untrue, viz., that he first saw New Zealand Oil in the Exhibition, for it was not to be seen at the Exhibition until two weeks after he had seen it in my room ’ in the Coffee Palace Hotel. When the history of oil boring in New Zealand is ; written, Mr Clarke’s name will not appear in its first pages, and can only appear at that part describing the third attempt at oil ! boring in New Zealand,—l am Ac., A. Y. Ross, {