ELTHAM.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LIII, Issue 9480, 7 December 1907, Page 8

ELTHAM.

BOROUGH LOAN PROPOSALS,

(Fima Our Own Correspondent.) A special meeting of the Eltham Borough Council was held last evening to consider loan proposals. The Borough Engineer's estimates for (proposed loan works showed : . *

. £ Drainage 1606 Waterworks extension 960 Engineering, contingencies, etc. ... • 254 2820 Street improvements 2000 Total 4820 The Council decided to accept the proposals as scheduled, and to ask the Engineer to report on two or three minor extensions; the whole matter will then be .further considered by the Council.

The Chairman (Mr G. V. Pearce), speaking at the last meeting of the Patea County Council, said it was a credit to the whole council that the roads were as good, if not better,, than those in the adjoining counties, and even with this they were the lowest rated ratepayers in Taranaki or Wangaarai districts.

[ On the day His Excellency the Governor arrived in Hawera from the Kaupokonui camp the flag was flying half-mast at the Hawera District High School as a mark of sympathy in connection with the death of the late Master Hector Morrison, of the Waihi. At the same time the Post Office emblem was flying high in honor of Lord Plunket's visit. Mr C. A. Strack, the headmaster, the other day WTote to His Excellency informing him why the school flag was half-mast. Yesterday Mr Strack received a letter from Lord Plunket thanking him for the explanation, and asking him to express to the parents his sorrow at the accident which terminated so sadly.

Ihe question of imprisonment for debt was discussed at a social gathering of lawyers in Wellington the other evening. The Dominion reports that Mr H. D. Bell, K.C., said a necessary reform was the total abolition of impiisonment for debt. He had seen befcre the days of the Abolition of the Imprisonment for Debt Act, men haled to gaol and kept in gaol for an indefinite period for their indebtedness. This state of things had been mainly done away with, but the remnant of it that remained was a disgrace. There were ample remedies by examinations in bankruptcy to prevent fraudulent evasion of debt. The present law was a disgrace to civilisation, and the members of the legal profession who were engaged in carrying it out should raise their voices against its continuance. Let them all band together to get rid of this horrible abomination. Dr McArthur, S.M., said he would be found the hardest man in New Zealand from whom to get a judgment summons order against a man. Simple debt was no reason why a man should ever go into prison; it might be his misfortune, but it was not a crime. To apply for a judgment summons was a very serious thing, and lawyers could rot exercise too much discretion in the nutter.

At a. Jaw diniifer the other evening in Wellington, Mi> ft ti. Sell, £.£., said he wanted to denounce a pestilent heresy to the effect that barristers had some duty to the public beyond their duty to their client in playing the ftame. They had to play the pine fairly and honorably, but the idea that they owed it to the community to help the Judge to secure a right verdict, as apart from the duty vbich they owed to their client, was a pestilent heresy. It was the business of the Judge and jury to get the verdict right, and of the advocate to do his best for his client, so long as he took no mean advantage. He described with zest how Mr Justice Cooper and himself, before the Judge was called to the Bench, obtained a favorable verdict for "a pack of scamps" whom thiy were defending.