North Otago Times. FRIDAY, JANUARY 28, 1881.

North Otago Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2688, 28 January 1881, Page 2

North Otago Times. FRIDAY, JANUARY 28, 1881.

As John Hamtden made himself famous by resisting an illegal impost, Mr W. Hutchison and Dr Harding, of Wellington, both Justices of the Peace, and the first, like Hampden, a member of Parliament, bave made themselves known throughout New Zealand by refusing to administer an unreasonable law. It appears that some time ago a man named Charles Martin was brought before these gentlemen, charged with havi'ig in his possession seven unstamped boxes of cigars. In other woi'ds, he wa3 sued for evading the Customs duties. The cigars it appears were worth L 2, and as they were smugged into the country the Customs authoiities at Wellington piocepded by information against M.....1U. -nuuonuug to tne Uustoms Act ot 1858 when proceedings aie t.iken in such cases, the Commissioner of Customs may elect to sue for treble the value of the smuggled yoods or for a lump sum of LlOO. In Martin's case Major Atkinson, the piesont Commissioner of Customs, appears to have elected to sue for the lump sum, but when the breach of the Act was proved before the justices they declined to impose the penalty. It may be that the law as it stands is repugnant to common sense or even to common justice, but the conduct of Mr Hutchis>N and Dr Harding was certainly extraordinary on the part of men bound by oath to administer the law as they found it, and its strangeness is heightened by the fact that one of them is himself a legislator. The Commissioner may have acted with little consideration in electing to sue for the sum of LI OO instead of treble the value of the goods, but having made his election, and the case against Martin having been proved before the justices, it was only natural that he should have insisted on the fulfilment of the law. Almost as a matter of course, therefore, the Commissioner, by counsel, in the Court above, called upon the justices to show cause whj they should not proceed to a determination in keepiug with the terms of the statute. The case came before the Supreme Court in banco at Wellington on Wednesday, when the justices, who appeared in person, " urged that they had refused to fine Martin in the sum of LlOO simply because it would have been, outrageous on their part to have done so, seeing that the cigars were only worth about L 2." As might have been expected the Chief Justice held that the justices had no right to look at the matter in that light, their business being not to set aside the law but to administer it as they found it; and the full Court made a rule absolute commanding them to proceed to d propel determination. There can be little doubt that the conduct of Mr Hutchison and Dr Harding in this case has been not only unbecoming but illegal, and the fact that it is not unlikely to lead to the amendment of an unsatisfactory law, and so to the public benefit, is not sufficient to extenuate them. The most eminent judge in the country should not dare to act in so arbitrary a manner j indeed, no one with any just claim to a knowledge of judicial functions would think of pursuing such a course. However absurd come of our colonial laws may be, and we all know that some of them are absurd enough, i we cannot afford to let eveu the worßt of them be set aside by the fiat of their administrators. Were this license once granted to the twelve hundred learned and astute gentlemen whose nntnes are on the roll of New Zeil-iud Justices of the Peace, the colonists miyht imitate the "enraged Noithuralierland " and call upon oider to die and be d<>ne with it. Va^t numbers of these yentlemeu would have very little hesitation in setting their own opinions above

the enactments of the Legislature. At nil events when this is done by justices resident in the capital of the colony, it is not nnf iir to infer that their brethren in small townships and ruial districts would be likely enough to do likewise. But reaHy the presumption of Mr Hutchison and Dr Harding is too preposterous to be dwelt upon j a moie pitiable plight than that in which they have placed themselves could scarcely be imagined in connection with the administratois of the law in a civilised country. Hnd they wished to draw attention to a defect in the statute, they might easily he /c done so without making themselves ridiculous as men and without violating their oaths &s Justices of the Peace. They might have reserved thei" decision in the case and then have resigned their justiciary offices, sooner than proceed to give judgment. By this means they might have effected the object in view without riding rough-shod over the statute law of the country, and by doing so they might have won for themselves an enviable leputation even greater than their unenviable notoriety. As it is, though, their action will pi-obably have the effect of directing the attention of the Legislature to the necessity of amending the Customs laws, for it is evident that the Commissioner's present powers of choosing between two courses in such cases as that of Charles Martin are not always exercised with credit to the Government or with justice to the subject.

Miss Rose's school in Wharf street will bo re-opened on Monday, the 31st insfc. The annual meeting; of the North Otago Coursing C ! ub was held yesterday, when officers and committee for the ensuing year were appointed, It was reaolve 1 to make the Derby open to all comers for the future, and to restrict the Members' Plate to members only. The ornamental trees in the Tyne street Gardens have been much damaged of late, through the wanton acts of boys whose delight it is to climb the branches and break them down, thutv or forty of them having be*-n served in this manner. A little girl, who was detected breaking the branches off, was brought before the Magistrate yesterday and fined, at the same time receiving such an admonition as to make a repetition of the offence on her part very improbable. Future offenders will be dealt with more severely. We have received a full report of the cricket match at Timaru between the Australian Eleven and Canterbury, but out of respect for those who, against the Pleven so expeditiously made themselves acquainted wjth ducks-eggs, we withhold a description of the manner in which they performed the trying ordeal of gazing at their wicketa going down. The Timaru innings might be described as a melancholy and funereal march from the pavilion to the wickets, and from the wickets to the pavilion. Wellington's statement that Waterloo was won on the cricket field might be true, but some of tho New Zealand cricket clubs would be able to supply but few fighting veterans if occasion arose for another Waterloo. The annual meeting of subscribers to the Oamaru Hospital, held last evening at the Volunteer Hall, was of a more than ordinarily interesting character, aid considerable animation was infused into the proceedings. Th<* main subject of attention was the election of a medical officer for the institution, there being two candidates, each of whom had a strong pirty canvassing the town on their behalf during the day, and at the meeting a number of persons paid in their subscription of LI to entitle them to vote. Demur was made to the voters having tt r > olapft t,h#»ir ntimpi on thp pip""", v>uG as lb was required by the ordinance the meeting had t«i submit to it although a proposition that the regulation be modified was carried as a recommendati >n to tho new committee The result <>f the ballot was that Dr de Lautour was elected by a majority of sixteen over Dr Wait. The leases of store sites in Tyne street, advertised for sale by the railway department, have been withdrawn in the meantime. This has been done owing tt the representations of his Worship the Mayor on the subject During an interview with Mr Oliver in Dunedin he pointed out the illegality of the contemplated act of the Government in gelling the leases in question, and he was told by the Minister for Public Works that enquiries would be male in Wellington and an answer sent on receipt of the required information. There is evidently something peculiar about this. If Government has any legal c'aim to the land in question there need be no necessity to seek information m proof of its claim in Wellington or elsewhere, and it perhaps would have been as well if the Minister for Public Works had satisfied himself on this head before he took any steps in the matter whatever. It was thought by many that the Omarama wool which took the first order of merit ac the Melbourne Exhibition was competing solely against New Zealand wool, but we are in a position to state that it was not so. The wool was competing against the best products of both New South Wales and Vic- j toria, and in quality was considerably in advance of the other exhibits in the same class. The jurors' remarks regarding the Ist and 2nd prizes are that the wool from the Omarama station was " well treated, bright, and good," and that of Woodhome (Victoria) as "not bright enought, rather heavy, otherwise well scoured." It will therefore be seen that both in quality and "get-up' 1 the New Zealand wool was much superior to any other exhibit. Mr Sutherland has taken a number of prizes for wool shown by him at different exhibitions. Some years ago in Melbourne he took a first prize for 60 merino ewe fleeces in grease ; in London, first for 60 merino ewe fleeces in grease ; and at the Paris Exhibition of 1867-68, first for 4 fleeces (two rams and two ewes) in grease. This was the highest prize awarded at this exhibition tor wool of any description. A cure for rheumatcs is what many would gladly like to become acquainted wibh, and as there are numbers of sufferers in thia district we hasten to lay before them the •• facts " of a certain remedy which has been mad*j known to us. Unlike the holders of certain remedies, we do not require a twopenny stamp for our information, but gjve it freely. The g> ntleman who w»s cured had tried many remedies, such as perambulating about in a dejected manner with a potato in his pocket and be was even known to have tied a red Bilk thread round his waist — nothing but "red" silk would do. Whatever may h*ve been his cogitations as to the possibility of being cure I by the red silk, there can be n> d >übt that it was a raokt extravagant use of material, which might have been turned to better account All his remedies failed, until he though r of riding out to enjoy the balmy breeze. H e proceeded to mount his Pegasus, but in the twinkling of an eye he found himself clinging desperately to the animal's neck, and with his legs tightly clasping the horse's ribs made frautic attempts to perform some hitherto unknown feat. The horae in the meantime wai executing a somewhat intricate step dance, the head an'l tail being in close proximity, and the back well archod. A step more difficult than the others to keep time to found the horneman travelling through the air, and landing on all fours he managed to scramble to his feet— a cured man. He has not been troubled with rheumatism cince. an<l nut o f gratitude tor his cure will lend the hort.6 to any one who al-o desires to be cured. The horse cau ac recommended, and the cure costs nothing. The Mount Ida Chronicle tells of an elopement from an important township in the north-west part of that ounty. The most peculiar thing about it, says our Contemporary,

is that the giddy pair are both married people; neither cap ba much short of fifty ; and further, neither could ever possibly besel-cted by any artist, however mad, as a model fora painting of Venus o- of ApoMo. The<iod of Love senra to ,iave awakened a fiery an>l unhallowed fiVinne in them at a very advanced period of their lives, for it must hive been no ordinary attaohment that induced an elderly man to desert hi 3 wife, and a gi-addmother to leave her husband and her children in such a manner as this. It it be* hsved that the lady went • via Blacks and Lawrence to Dunedin, while Adonis journeyed va Pigroot— taking with him, as a ipv'c of este m and gratitude, a horse belonging to a gentleman who had befriended him for years, which he left at Palmerston. The guilty pair met in Dunedin, and the last that was heard of them was that they had left f>r the South, presumably with the intention of c itching the steamer for Victoria, which was then about to sail from the Bluff