ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

Southland Times, Issue 866, 16 December 1867, Page 2

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

WH DO NOT IDENTIFY OITESELVKS ITT ANT WAT WITH THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED BX Off*. 00BBESP0NDENT3. (TO THE EDITOB OF THE SOUTKIiAITD T131E9.) Sib, — I ask the favor of your inserting the enclosed note to the Sheep Inspector, and his reply thereto. C. Basstiait. December 14, 1867.

Invereargill, Nov. 19, 1867. Sir, — In giving your evidence before the Court in the case of myself v. Raymond, you stated that you had bought sheep of me. As the evidence of my manager and myself is directly to the contrary of this, I bave to request that you will be good enough to render such particulars of the transaction as will enable me to refute at once any imputations that might otherwise be cast on the evidence of myself or my manager. — I am, sir, yours truly, C. Basstian". H. G-. Fielder, Esq., Sheep Inspector, Southland.

Sheep Department, Dec. 13, 1867. C. Basstian, Esq. Deab Sib, — I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 19th ult., and should have answered it at once, but I had not seen the published account of the evidence in the case of " Yourself v. Raymond," at the time, and since then I have been busily engaged up country. I felt rather surprised at the statement contained in your letter, and had I stated in my evidence that I had purchased sheep from you, it must have been in error, or I had quite misunderstood the question asked me by counsel. As you were absent in Tasmania at the time the tups were borrowed, I will briefly relate the transaction : — In the early part of 1864 I was short of rams for my ewe flock ; at this time your tups were running on land belonging to F. Went worth, Esq., right opposite my house at Wyndley. My late* partner, Mr Hawskworth, asked your" brother "Walter, who was at Centre Hill,if he would sell, or let us have the loan of a few, as I had not time to spare to go and look after rams. I also saw your brother, and he said, as they were not using the tups themselves, we might have the loan of a few. I believe we took fourteen or fifteen, and these were duly returned. At the same time the Centre Sill people also borrowed some of your tups, and in the same year eventually changed their rams for yours ; these rams they have at the present time, therefore if there had been any scab amongst your rams the Centre Hill sheep would ha^e become diseased, but on the contrary, that station is, and always has been a clean station. You have my full permission to make whatever use you may think proper of this letter. I have given a full and true statement of the transaction, which can be proven by gentlemen who were cognisant of the matter. I observed, in reading the published evidence, that it does not state that I should say " I had purchased sheep from you." — I ha^e the honor to be, dear sir, your obedient servant, Henbt Or. Fieldeb, Chief Inspector of Sheep, Southland. [It is against the practice observed by journalists to insert letters which have previously appeared in a local paper,, but in this instance, as the subject is one ; that generally interests the runholders,. and as Mr Basstian, no doubt, was unacquainted with the etiquette observed, the usual rule has been dispensed with in hia i favor.— Ed. & T.~\