The Press. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 1877.

Press, Volume XXVII, Issue 3644, 14 March 1877, Page 2

The Press. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 1877.

-The appeals from the City Council assessment commenced yesterday. Their great number has, we should hope, been a surprise to the Council, as it certainly has been to the public. They amount in all to upwards of eight hundred —a most extraordinary proportion of the number of occupations. We do not pretend to know upon what principle properties have been assessed this year. We should have said that the Act provided for a diminution rather than otherwise in tbe rate of assessment, for it enacts that twenty per cent Bhall be deducted from tbe amount of the annual valuation before the assessment is calculated. In the face of this, however, we understand that in point of fact the city assessment is, generally speaking, considerably larger than it has been on any previous occasion. The result is a dissatisfaction which is little short of universal. We do not see how the City Council can be exculpated from a charge of great negligence. It is not as if they had not already, had warning. Last year they made a similar attempt to increase the charge upon the ratepayers. They met with similar resistance, and they found it impossible to sustain the amount of their assessment before the Resident Magistrate. This year they stand pretty much selfconvicted. As soon as the objections came in, they at once gave way to the extent of at least three hundred names. It thus appears upon their own showing that they have put a large number of citizens to needless annoyance and expense by endeavouring to extort from them an amount of rating which they have made no pretence of being able to defend as soon as the aggrieved parties showed a determination to resist. The result of the appeals heard yesterday proves that they might very wisely have given up a good many more. This sort of thing is quite inexcusable. We really must impress apon the gentlemen who undertake the management of municipal affairs, that it is one of their first duties not to make their proceedings a j nuisance to the general body of ratepayers, individually or collectively. I Nor does the evil end here. It ia not only that a great number of ratepayers are put to unnecessary and unreasonable inconvenience. The time taken up by tbe hearing of their appeals operates as a serious injury to other portions of the public. The Resident Magistrate's Court is so choked up with these assessment cases that its ordinary business is almost entirely suspended, and all cases of any importance are held over without any possibility of making arrangements as to when they may have a chance of coming on. This is a grave matter. The great balk of our local litigation is conducted in tbe Resident Magistrate's Court. It is by'means of this Court that debts are enforced and questions of legal right brought to a settlement. True, this statement must be limited to disputes which do not exceed £100 in value; but then it ia precisely these very questions that are the main subjects of litigation. Tbe Supreme Court sits for only a short time in the year; and if on each occasion there is more than one common jury case and one special jury, it seems to be a matter of jubilation among the legal fraternity. But in the Resident Magistrate's Court as many as two hundred cases are sometimes on the list for a single day, and the Court is now beginning to sit every day in the week. It is no light matter to interfere with the ordinary course of the business of such a Court. We find by the advertisement that

Mr. MelHefa will not bare concluded ' hie duties as Judge of the various J Assessment Courts before the 15th April. Of course a considerable por- « tion of the time will be taken up with « other assessments, after that of Christ- * church is finished. But we cannot refrain from observing that the Go- i verament have acted unwisely in i thus heaping additioaal tasks ( upon a gentleman who is already , beginning to be over-burdened with ] hie proper occupation. They seem i to take for granted that a man who j already has enough to do is just the | man who ought to have something j more. And this when it would be no i difficult matter to find other gentlemen ■ quite sufficiently qualified, and having | the further advantage of sufficient , leisure. For ifc must be remembered , that this is not a duty that requires i any qualification of a specially judicial ! character. All that is wanted is a tolerably clear head, and an adequate knowledge of the locality to be assessed. Mr. Mellish probably enjoys both these qualifications as fully as any gentleman who might be substituted for him. But the objection is that he is already overworked. He has quite enough to do as .Resident Magistrate, and any extra exertion in other departments can only be obtained from him at the sacrifice of his efficiency in this. The proper course is to appoint a gentleman to act specially in the matter of i- assessment appeals. Such an appointment would involve some additional expense; and we dare say it was a consideration of this kind which led to the present arrangement. But it is always a bad economy that sacrifices efficiency to cheapness. Any little saving that may have been effected by employing the Besident Magistrate as Judge of the Assessment Courts has been dearly purchased. Every litigant is being prejudiced, no one can tell how seriously, by the delay in the proceedings of the Magistrate's Court; and the great object of the institution of this Court is frustrated, namely, that of ensuring a cheap and speedy enforcement of claims and redress of injuries. This is certainly the first purpose for which the Resident Magistrate's Court was established, and to no other ought it to be allowed to give way.