CJje §ntce Uerafo. j —" Nemo me impune laeesset." TOKOMAIRIRO, JUNE 1, 1886.

Bruce Herald, Volume XVII, Issue 1754, 1 June 1886, Page 2

CJje §ntce Uerafo. j — - " Nemo me impune laeesset." TOKOMAIRIRO, JUNE 1, 1886.

One of the members of the School Committee, it will be seen from our report, made some very strong remarks at the meeting on Friday evening relatiye to the sanitary condition of the Borough. "We are not prepared to say to what extent these remarks are called for, nor are we disposed to

appoint ourselves special inspector in | order to ascertain. The occupation is not savory. Still, enough has come under our notice to warrant the conviction that some more stringent sanitary regulations are required within the Borough. Certain structures from which unwholesome and disagreeable effluvia emanate are placed in unnecessarily close and certainly dangerous proximity to dwellinghouses. But this matter to be dealt with at all must be dealt with as a whole. A little improvement here and there will not do much good. We have previously expressed our opinion with regard to the earth-closet system, and again state emphatically that that is the system most suitable to and the only cleanly and wholesome system at present possible for Milton. With regard to pigstyes, there is no doubt that there are many which ought to be immediately removed. It is even doubtful if they should be permitted in the Borough at all. Cowsheds are not so bad if kept fairly clean, but even they may easily become a nuisance. It is said that the Borough Council is about to take action against certain parties who have received notice, if the nuisances complained of are not removed. We trust that this will be done, and that no favor will be shown. Upon strict cleanliness depends the public health, and this cannot be secured even in a little place like Milton without constant care and attention, and the occasional punishment of slovenly' householders.

During the debate on the second reading of the Justices of the Peace Bill, Mr KoLLESTOtf said he had no objection to Mayors of Boroughs and Chairmen of Counties being made Justices, but he objected to Chairmen of Eoad Boards being put in that position. We are glad that there is at least one member of the House that is anxious a line should be drawn somewhere. Many of the appointments made to the magistracy are positively ridiculous ; the men have no qualification whatever, and to place them in such a position can only serve to bring the Bench into disrepute and destroy all respect for it. Chairmen of Eoad Boards may be, and for the most part are, respectable men, but about the only qualification required, and the only qualification not a few possess outside their own business is some little knowledge of surfacing, road-making, and such like. A Justice of the Peace should be an undoubted gentleman, a man of education, in such a social position as to command respect, of such unimpeachable character as to entitle him to general confidence, and of such means as te enable him to act fearlessly and independently oE the whole community in which his vocation is exercised. Any man who does not answer to those qualifications ought by no means to be a magistrate. We are not sure that it would not be better to dispense with the army of the great unpaid altogether, and depend for the administration of justice upon salaried magistrates who are altogether independent of those whose affairs they have to adjudicate upon. However that may be, it is quite certain that the present Grovernment of New Zealand has done more than perhaps any Government in the world ever did to bring the magistracy into contempt and derision. The House evidently felt the absurdity of the proposal that Chairmen of Eoad Boards should be made Justices, for it was followed in Committee by further amendments, including almost every conceivable official, winding up with all the members of both Housos of Parliament. Ultimately an amendment, by Sir George Grey, that Justices should be elected, waa carried. This is, in our opinion, just as objectionable as any of the absurd amendments previously proposed. It is to be hoped that upon the third reading the Bill will be thrown out altogether. Better that the Justices be appointed as heretofore by a responsible Government than that they should be chosen by the hoi pollol, or even by such of them only as enjoy the privilege of paying rates.