THE TEVIOT MEMORIAL AND MR. WARDEN HICKSON.

Tuapeka Times, Volume I, Issue 20, 27 June 1868, Page 3

THE TEVIOT MEMORIAL AND MR. WARDEN HICKSON.

(To tlie Editor of the Tuapeka Times.) Sir, — Have the goodness to convey to " Honesty," through the medium of your valuable journal, my sincere heartfelt thanks for his kindness in bringing before the residents of Mount Benger, and your readers generally, the memorial of the residents of Roxburgh, and Mr. Warden Hickson's report thereon It is not my intention at present to deal unnecessarily harsh with that model representative of justice, though public privilege demands immediate investigation into the motives which prompted him to make statements in his official report based on fallible material. I cannot find in the memorial anything open to refutation, or anything to which any reasonable man would object, or characterise as based on falsehood. But it must be remembered that Mr. Warden Hickson is a rare specimen of the genus homd.- He states in his official report, with the most deliberate nonchalance, that " the memorial and the letter accompanying it are almost destitute of truth." Tempora mutantur, et nos mutamur m illis. The bent of Mr. Hickson's mind in this matter, unhappily for himself, was wholly in the wrong direction. He loves to be dictatorial, and he loves to be minute ; but he has fallen helplessly on the obverse side of public justice in performing the duty devolving upon him in his official capacicy, by stating in his public report to the Sec- , retary for Land and Works that, " upon ' measuring from the inner street lins to the river Clv ha, at the nearest points, there are over three chains." Now, sir, I beg most emphatically to refute that statement ; and, at the same time, challenge Mr. Hickson to a mathematical explanation on that point, not according to Mr. Hickson's system of mathematical j progression, but upon solid, tangible basis, and prove to the Government that his statement, with regard to the three chains, is based on, truth. Venienti oc-cun-ite morbo : that would be my candid advise to Mr. Hickson, and to at once retract the statement' he made, reflecting very seriously indeed on the moral character of those whom he has so wantonly and deliberately calumniated. In the meantime, I leave the residents of Mount Benger to consider reasonably whether they think Mr. Warden Hickson was actuated by some improper motive, or had some sinisier object in view, in damaging the case of the petitioners. „ Hoping that Mr. Warden Hickson will withdraw the words, for his own benefit, and apologise for using them, — I am, &c, One op the Memorialists. Roxburgh, June 25, 1868.