"SIT DOWN, MR. THOMAS!"

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 93, 19 April 1924, Page 13

"SIT DOWN, MR. THOMAS!"

COUNSEL AND BENCH. A FULL-POWERED BREEZE. A full-powered breeze developed all of a sudden in the Magistrate's Court at Christchurch during the sitting, and at the finish the Magistrate (Mr. Wyvern Wilson, S.M.) adjourned the Court himself, and hurried from the room with Mr. C. S. Thomas calling after him. In the morning a maintenance case was before the Court, and an adjournment was made till the afternoon, when Mr. Thomas appeared for the complainant in the case. The Magistrate: You consent to iZ a week and £2 2/ costs? Mr. Thomas: No, sir. The Magistrate: Then put your client in the box. | Mr. Thomas: No, I will not go on with it. The Magistrate: I dismiss the case then. Mr. Thomas: May I be heard? The Magistrate: I dismiss the case. I have got to be very careful with you solicitors. Mr. Thomas: If your Worship pleases. The Magistrate: Mr. Thomas—Sit down, Mr. Thomas. Mr. Thomas: If rour Worship pi— The Magistrate: Please sit down, Mr. Thomas. The Magistrate then said that the matter had been adjourned from that morning. "The case, from the facts put before mc," he said, "seems to be a matter where there are negotiations for a deed of separation, and there seemed to be nothing that was then said to lead mc to suppose that the defendant wilfully failed to maintain hie wife." When the matter came on this afternoon, he said, the parties agreed to a separation on terms of a consent. The only terms that could be embodied in the separation was the payment of £2 a week and costs. It was now sought to have introduced the matter of complainant having u«e of the furniture. That could not be introduced into a maintenance order. The payment of outgoings was also a matter for a contract. "On my intimating," said the Magistrate, "that this could not ba done, counsel said he was not going on with it. I dismiss it." Mr. Thomas rose to reply. The Magistrate: Adjourn the Cdurt. The Court is adjourned. Mr. Thomas: Will your Worship—? "The Court is adjourned, Mr. Thomas." added the Magistrate, as he threw his fountain pen on the bench and rose hastily. As the Magistrate hastened from the Court. Mr. Thomas called out, "Your Worship—your Worship," but the door closed. Mr. Thomas went in search of the Magistrate, but failed.