LAW REFORM.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3248, 29 November 1881, Page 4

LAW REFORM.

Mr Pilliet, for several years Eesident Magistrate at Akaroa, and now one of the candidates for the Stanmore (Christchurch) district, spoke as follows in the course of a speech to the electors : —" He now came to a subject to which he had given a great deal of attention, and of which he had had some experience. One of the reforms that was absolutely necessary, <md ono which would come home to every man, was law

reform. Afc present thc-y could not. open Ihe templo of justice without the golden k->y. The laws were made so that they played into the hands of the rich at the expense of the poor. We had adopted Hie old English judicial system, and allowed it to rulo us up to the present moment. Tho Courts were constituted in the same way as the Courts of England 100 roars ago. Our deeds, summonses, and processes wore worded in an absurd sort of Vormnn-Freneh English, which nobody could understand. The people had to pay for these forms. If he asked a question of a butcher or baker, he was not charged Is 8d for an answer. He was aware of his r.TOn knowledge that in the Supreme Court, f' niv i ti-, 0 lower Courts, pi 1 ir 1 \ consideration, t ' 1 1 * ' ' c preliminary n ' 11 1 1 11 v 'cv thnh if ;i. 1 fit on In an tmn hi the Court—if he could not mit d . 1 if t 1 pjr hisi-ofrion for C 1"0 t ' ' ' I md lo*e his ioikm 1- 1 > 'hl'mous thing for 1 poor 1 in to ijo f 1 1 )w -with his rich neighbor. I'ut -0 long as the TTou.se of Parliament, was full of lawyers, they would never have law reform. Wolves did not eat one another unless they were very hungry."