RESIDENT MAGISTRATES' COURT.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 3, Issue 113, 19 November 1859, Page 3

RESIDENT MAGISTRATES' COURT.

On Friday, Saturday, and Monday, the 11th, 12th, and 14th inst., the Court, consisting of J. Curling, Esq., R.M., J. Anderson, Esq., J.P., and, during the greater part of the time, H. S. Tiffen, Esq., J.P., was engaged in hearing a charge preferred against Mr. Boorman, Solicitor, of stealing from the dwelling-house of Thomas Reynolds, Napier, the sum of £23. The evidence was very voluminous, and the case resulted in the committal of the defendant for trial at the next (January) sitting of the District Court, bail for his '. appearence in two sureties, of £50 each, > having been accepted by the Bench. . ( [We have to apologise for this meagre report of a case which has created quite a sensation in Napier and its neighbourhood ; ! and we deem it due to the readers. of the j Herald to offer a few words by way of ex- : planation. We were not present during ' the whole of the examination, having been .' quite unable to, ,sp.are,. three..; consecutive ( days for the purpose, and trusting, that, as j in Auckland formerly, and in Napier j hitherto, we should be permitted access "to - the depositions in Court. We found, < however, upon application, that Mr. Boor- :

man had protested to the Court against its affording to the Press the usual facilities of publishing the evidence. While considering in what way this unexpected difficulty might be met, — whether or not we should at once make a formal application to the Bench, we were informed by the Solicitor for the defence that his notes of the evidence, which were very full, were quite at the disposal of the press ; they were at the moment out of his own possession, but he would give the use of them upon their being returned, and would, in the meantime, give an outline of his speech for the defence ; which he accordingly did. The notes, however, were not furnished, the defendant in the case having taken them into his own keeping. In the meantime the original depositions were forwarded to Auckland by the "White Swan," in order that the Attorney General might perform the functions of grand jury, which seemingly devolve upon him under the District Courts Act. This explanation will, we trust, satisfy our readers that the omission in our columns this morning, of ■which so many will complain, is, so far as we are concerned, the result of accident. We regret it, believing, as we -do, that the fullest publicity should be given to the proceedings of our courts of justice, and that no end can be answered by their suppression.]