391
against the Government
as the papers are at present, with the Ovingtries
I should advise against taking legal proceedings in response to their last rejoinder, hard as it may be
if a difference has excited feeling between the Government and a fellow subject, although a defence of vis major might be successfully pleaded. But I understood the Surveyor General to assert that the drain under Mr Coughtrie's land was not a Government drain at all, and that the large drain was of very small cubic capacity and could not affect the question.
The Survey Department and Mr Coughtrie are at issue on this fact. How is that issue to be determined, and if it were adverse to the Survey Department, would this Government be justified in awarding damages for establishing a precedent which might be dangerous and troublesome?
That is a point, however, on which the Governor is best able to judge.
(Signed) James Russell
Acting Attorney General
21st March, 1879.