A MAGISTRATE'S PENANCE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 154, 30 June 1903, Page 2

A MAGISTRATE'S PENANCE.

A new story comes from no less a personage than Mr 0. H. Snazelle, who toured the colonies as a singer, reciter, raconteur, some years ago, and the yarn concerns certain doings in a sister colony:— While touring in New South Wales, he and a friend, who was a local magistrate, had stayed at a club until the early hours oi" the morning. Before p&rting they sang "Auld Lang Syne" m the street.

Now singing in that particular township was against the law, and when a policeman appeared on the scene, the ma° trate took to his heels, while Snazelle fell into the arms of the man in blue, and had to find bail for his appearance in the Court later on. Judge of my surprise, said Mr Snazelle. when on being called upon to answer a charge of disorderly conduct. I espied upon The Bench ray companion of the carouse, who was regarding die with a very stern eye. And he imposed a penalty of £2. '"Very disgraceful conduct," he "remarked, when the active and intelligent officer had given his evidence. "But," began Snazelle, quite prepared to argue, the point and to urge that what was fit punishment, for the prisoner at the bar was fit also for the representative of justice on the Bench. "Stand dov.-n, sir. I won't hear a word," was all he got for his pains; and he was hurried from the Court.

Do you want to know, added the storyteller, what I said to that magistrate when next I met him? Well, it wasn't much. "Couldn't help it, old fel-low!"-he said: "had my character and position to keep up, don't you know." He did penance by standing a supper for a dozen, and, you bet, the laugh was not with me.