A SMALL DEBT GRIEVANCE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 3, Issue 670, 18 January 1881, Page 2

A SMALL DEBT GRIEVANCE.

(To the Editor. Wairarapa Dailt.) . Sib,—l have got a grievance, and as it may have some slight publio significinqe. permit-trie to ventilate it through your open column. A few months ago a sentleman descri- a bing himself as Nathan, storekeeper, ! Masterton, took it into his head that I owed him a small debt—the exact amount I don't recollect, Without giving mo the slightest intimation of what he intended doing, he sent a summons, commanding me to appear and answer the demand at the Resident Magistrate's Court to be holden at Masterton. I •■could not recollect having had any transactions with a person of the name of . Nathan, and as no one could give me any information about him I had no alterav.S* tive but to appear and answer the sunjjjT.' inons. At this'time I was located irF Wellington City, but on the day named I put in an appearance, as commanded in the summons, at the Court in Masterton! There I was met by an accommodating barrister, who represented thß aforesaid Nathan. On tendering the usual plea of " never indebted," Mr, Nathan,- through his counsel; suddenly remembered he was not the Nathan he had imagined himself to be, but some other representative of the Shylock race. To enable him to settle .the'qu.estion of his. own identity the further hearing of the case was adjourned for a couple of months, and, knowing that I onuld uot afford to dance attendance after Mr Nathan, I iustruoted a solicitor to watch the matter in my absence. I had well-nigh forgotten the whole affair when the other day a letter turned up in one of the local post offices, addressed to mo from the Clerk of the Court, intimating that Nathan had abandoned the affair altogether. Now, sir, what I complain of is this— That Mr Nathan should put me to the expense and trouble he has done, and then be allowed to abandon the proceedings without having been called upon to compensate me for, at all events the exponses he has put me to. I am, &0,, R. Carrick. '. Cambridge, Waikato, 11th January, 1881.