LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XII, Issue 601, 10 September 1853, Page 3

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

| Sir— As the subject of Education has largely occupied the public mind of late, it might be interesting to your readers generally to be in- ' formed of the nature of the Education Bill submitted to the British Parliament, in April last, by Lord John Russell. Many of the settlers have to gather their knowledge of home politics from the Examiner, and it strikes me that no subject of greater interest could occupy a portion of your increased space, than the views of our present Government on National Education. I am, &c. Nelson, Sept. G. Samuel Ironside. [We are indebted to our correspondent for his suggestion, and we shall act upon it in our next number. — Ed. N. 2?.]

Sir — Allow me to congratulate yon, and the public of Nelson, on the appearance of, if I mistake not, a new correspondent, and myself for having roused him from his slumbers amongst the musty records of Noah's Ark, or their cotemporaries. I should not, however, have troubled you with any remarks of mine upon the subject of his letter, did I not fear that many persons in this settlement, ignorant and uninformed upon the nice distinctions which lawyers are too apt to draw between the administration of law and justice, might be led to join with our late M. G. A., that we unfortunate J. Ps. are a portion of the community who, from their position, afford an additional proof that in the settlement of Nelson, ignorance prevails over intelligence.

Now your correspondent says, that by the " Summary Proceedings Amendment Ordinance," in certain cases before " Justices of the Peace," not the " Resident Magistrate's Court," a right of appeal is reserved to the parties.

Now your correspondent in his anxiety to display his stock of black letter law, has confounded the ordinary jurisdiction of Justices of the Peace, with the ordinance for establishing a Resident Magistrate's Court (in lieu of the Court of Request Ordinance, which, like Mahomet's coffin, is at present suspended between Heaven and Hell), which, if he had read, he would have seen that the powers of the Resident Magistrate are solely confined to cases wherein the natives are parties in the cause, in certain cases of what formerly were termed petty larceny, and lastly, in all cases of a civil nature where the sum sought to be recovered is below £20 — all of which powers are absolute and without appeal, which powers, except when both parties are of the native race, and where the cases relate to debt or damage, are conferred upon any two Justices of the Peace ; and here the powers under the Resident Magistrate's Ordinance cease.

Now as regards that part of your correspondent's letter which refers to the Summary Proceedings Ordinance, before anyone or more Justices of the Peace (no reference to the Resident Magistrate's Ordinance), what he states is very true, that when called upon to adjudicate upon offences created by Statute Law, and where the Magistrates may think the offence deserving of a higher penalty than is awarded i by the statute in such cases, they have the power to exceed the limits of the statute, and the party has the power of appeal, and we all know that in such esses the Magistrates require the strict proof of evidence. It is by confounding the provisions of the two ordinances that not only your correspondent, but the two worthy gentlemen, one, &c. become confused, and then seek to pacify their disappointed clients by abusing us poor J. P's., as the great body of the lawyers at home did with "Old Baggs." To my certain knowledge, that frequently it has been left to the option of the learned gentlemen, one, &c. that if they wished it, the magistrates have offered to extend the penalty beyond the prescribed amount, in order that they might carry the case to a higher tribunal, but notwithstanding 6undry loud notes of denunciation they, like Handy Andy's bottle of soda water, have hitherto evaporated in smoke, while their clients get the empty bottle, and the bill of costs, by way of a stopper. I am, &c, A J.P., but no Elector. j