The Daily Telegraph SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1881.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3006, 12 February 1881, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1881.

The Waipawa County Council is either cruelly indifferent to the pockets of its defaulting ratepayers, or else is ignorant of the manner in which its officers collect outstauding rates. Judging from a case that has been brought to our notice it appears the Council employe a rate collector, and this officer employs a solicitor. The simplest process is then adopted of summoning the defaulter, who is thereby called upon to pay tbe amount of rates, the cost of tbe summons, the hearing fee, and the solicitor's fee of half-a-guinea. It is high time that this sort of thing should be put a stop to. It is a monstrous absurdity, as well as a monstrous wrong, that half-a-guinea should be tacked on a ratepayer's summons for no earthly reason, apparently, than to swell the income of a local solicitor. The case to which we have referred is as follows:—A Waipawa ratepayer, resident in Napier, was summoned on January 28'h to answer the demand of Ebenezer Harwood, rate collector for the Waipawa County Council, for the sum of £1. The cost of summons was 4s, and solicitor's fee 10s 6d. The summons was appointed to be heard at Waipawa on the 4th February. Two days before the case came on for hearing the ratepayer sent a cheque for £1 4s to the Clerk of the Court. On tbe sth February, the day after the Court sat, the ratepayer received the following memorandum from tbe Clerk of the Court:—" The cheque for £1 4s has been received. Mr Guy has applied to the Court for the solicitor's fee of 10s 6d, for which he bas obtained judgment. On receipt of tbe amount as follows I will forward the usual receipt: Solicitor's fee, 10s 6d ; bearing fee, 3s; total, 13s 6d. Henry Arrow, Clerk of Court, Waipawa." Now, it may be asked, what was a solicitor wanted for at all. By tbe Act the rate collector is empowered to recover summarily all outstanding rates, and no mention is made of a solicitor, whose services indeed are not in the least required. The unfortunate ratepayer will, of course, have to pay the fee, but we do think the public should be protected by the magistrates, who might refuse to allow solicitor's fees in any debt case under £10, unless it could be shown that the services of a lawyer had been absolutely needed by the plaintiff.