A Bit too Previous.

Feilding Star, Volume I, Issue 293, 17 June 1907, Page 2

A Bit too Previous.

An instance of the necessity of be- | ing sure of your facts occurred at I the Hunterville Police Court the | other day. A local resident who was j not a licensed carrier lent his horse • and trap and driver to a local cream- j cry to carry the cream to the rail- ! way station, as it was found impossible to get a licensed carrier to . do the work. Thereupon tho clerk * of the Town Board issued a summons ■ against the resident for conveying : the cream to the railway station without being the owner of a car- * rier's license. Evidence was given 1 to show that the work was done for ■ nothing and purely to help the ' creamery folk out of a hole, and the , - case was dismissed. While the re- ■ suit made the prosecutor look foolish, * it wae pretty rough on the party summoned to have to waste his time

answering such a trivial charge, and no are surprised that tho jusi tices did not give costs to the defendant. It is almost past bearing that every paltry matter should bo magnified into a crime, and stro-ig 6teps should bo taken to prevent this system of rushing folk into a court of law just because someone thinks he has discovered a loop-l;->!e in their conduct, and iuc sooner vi* people of the colony return to a saner oondition of things the better it will bo for the general well-being. No punishment is too great for those who wantonly break laws made for the good of the community, but nothing tends more to belittle authority and to lessen respect for all that rightthinking people uphold, than the too common method of making mountains out of molehills and turning trifling occurrences into punishable offences.