The Bruce Herald. TOKOMAIRIRO, SEPTEMBER 26, 1899.

Bruce Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 3102, 26 September 1899, Page 4

The Bruce Herald. TOKOMAIRIRO, SEPTEMBER 26, 1899.

According to the ' Mataura Ensign ' Mr Stratford, who is a little wag in his big way, solemnly declared that " he got no recreation and frequently had to work till midnight on Sundays." This is evidently one of those magisterial jokes at which a clerk of court has to smile because it is one of his official duties to do so. Why Mr Stratford has to burn the midnight oil on Sundays or any other night, would take more than the X rays to discover. Some months in the year he averages 14 courts in his district ; while the balance of the time he averages about 11 courts a month. What he is doing the rest of the year only the people of Oamaru and himself can say. To most people his official life as a magistrate would be a state of sweet doing nothing —a condition of sleepy bliss where it is always afternoon. No man, not even a Stipendiary Magistrate, who works so industriously as we have pointed out, can be taken with any seriousness when he declares he has no recreation and burns the midnight oil, or Oamaru gas, on Sunday nights. As we have said, Mr Stratford is pleased ( to jest. The Justice Department is so gratified with Mr Soratford's services that it has'l ttely raised his salary, and he is quite right to bask in its smiles and do as little official work as he conveniently can. This is an allegedly democratic country, and if a Stipendiary Magistrate autocratically does as he pleases, then we should sink our democratic feelings and bow down to him, and help to increase his salary every year ! New Zealand is evidently the best of all possible places — for Stipendiary Magistrates. All parties having cases put off: to suit the magisterial pleasure, should adopt this pleasing optimistic spirit, and rejoice that some magistrates are having a good time at the public expense. This is the only balm in Gilead we can offer to the parties who were concerned in the j mining case of Morrison v. W. Dunn on j Saturday — an application for the resumption of land on Mr Dunn's property for mining purposes. Lawyers and witnesses were brought from all over the country at great expense, and only a few witnesses remain to be heard to finish the case. What did the warden who burns the midnight oil on Sunday nights do? Did this hard working official study the interest of the parties concerned ? No ! He calmly adjourned the case at 3 o'clock for a month, so as to get away by the express for Dunedin. He could easily have heard all the evidence and left by the 5 o'clock train, but then he would have been late for his dinner ! The adjournment of the case will most probably militate against one side in the dispute, and must lead to almost doubling the total costs of the litigation when it is heard next month. But what is a small matter like that to stopping a magistrate getting into Dunedin at 7 instead of 5 o'clock. " Comparisons are odorous " as Dogberry said.