A GILBERTIAN SITUATION.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 87, 6 January 1908, Page 5

A GILBERTIAN SITUATION.

;During' tiie debate on . the; Colonial Budget canio a • story. .worthy of comic oppra. • A Customs "officer; and a. Government i clerk of tlip ; tQwn of Conakry,' being iii want-of money, founded a'tribnnnl; and this only eight miles away froiii tho. soat. of administration. A celiai'.'was t.ho"",Cpurt-bouso," and .an old

Almaiiac Hachette' served ; as . their. " code." Onp, called' himself "President"" and ' the other • State Prosecutor!." Tho scale nf punishment was simple. Everybody brought up'was'condemned to, prison, but. was lot off on payment of. fines, which w«ro divided between' judge and' attorney. 5 ' This' incredible foolery lasted six months beforo tho Commissary at Conakry heard of it, and sent down one of -his policemen, who came before tlio court, aild just as ho was bring condemned to prison, arrested the "• bench." Tho party thori'Vent beforo tho, Administrator, and asked for two Militiamen, on protenco of arresting a'malefactor, and theso two,' in turn, arrested tho Conakry policornan, and 3ot tho court free. • Tho-polico officer,■ however, escaped during the night, and brought up reinforcoijients in tho shape of three or four more police. The court, howover,' had fled," only to bo caught later, and filially condemned to two years' imprisonment. M. Papassau, tho "Proaidont," died.of grief, but'Moushto, the "Procureur," is. now secretary to a prison. Those ''stained- happenings occurred in' the .town ,of Conakry,' in • French'- Guinea, in -tho ycpr.-'pf .grace .1005.,