THE DOG NUISANCE, AND THE JUSTICES' JUSTICE NUISANCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume III, Issue 712, 24 February 1866, Page 5

THE DOG NUISANCE, AND THE JUSTICES' JUSTICE NUISANCE.

"Wb the attention of the public to another extraordinary decision of tlie " Great Unpaid," ffiven in ie Resident Magistrate's Court yesterday. George Graliam, Esq., and J. O'JS eill, Esa vere t^ie two w^0 ' le absence of llr. Beckham, engaged in trying tlie Maori prisoner, at the Stockade, occupied tlie Bench. A boy named Rogers was hitten by one of two dotrs -vrliifli rushed upon him from the gateway of a 'house in the Karangaliape road—the boy docs not state that he was in the habit of running a stick along the corrugated iron fencing (six feet high) of the premises from which tiie dogs came and of thus infuriating them. He onlv knows the dogs were Mr. Thompson's by hearsay. He is taken into the house in which $£r. liiompson lodges, and introduced to Air. Thompson's dogs; he first poiuts out one as having bitten him, then changes his opinion and sirs it was the other, and finally declares it have been neither one nor the other, but some other dog. A person named John Graham, a very active partizan on the boy's behalf, thinks if r.>ijst have been one of Mr. Thompson's dogs which bit tlio boy, and on this evidence the J.P- s decide that it must have been llr. Thompson s dogs, all other evidence to the contrary notwithstanding. That it is very clear that it was not -Y£r. Thompson's dog which bit the boy was evident, unless we are to come to the conclusion that tho direct evidence of several respectable gentlemen is worth nothing, and to be set aside by the indirect evidence coming from a clearly prejudiced source. We would, too, suggest that such an Act as tho " Injuries by Dogs' Act" was passed at the last session of the Assembly, and though both J.P.s presiding yesterday on the Bench were members of the House, would remind them that there is a certain clause (clause a) in that Act which it would have been as well if thev had read before giving their decision. Mr. Thompson was not the occupier of the house or premises from which the dogs issued. He was only a lodger. This issuing of the dogs from the house iii which he merely lodged does not, therefore fix the ownership upon him—and no other ownership was brought forward. Even the man Graham only believed they were Mr. Thompson's dogs. These extraordinary decisions of Justices of the Peace are now becoming so frequent that the interests of the public demand that the General Government should look into the matter, and provide proper and competent magisterial accomodation for the city of Auckland. Cases are continually occurring in which our able and impartial Eesident Magistrate is called away to the performance of other duties, andthen the public is left to the mercy of local J.P's. who may be men of education and judgment, or who may not, and the office of J.P. has been so widely and indiscriminately sown broadcast in this Colony, that men ot' the class of •Justice Shallow largely predominate among them. No man's liberty or purse is safe. The injured cannot obtain redress, the innocent may have their liberty sworn away by any unprincipled ruffian who chooses to bring a "charge of threatening language against them, even though the rebutting evidence is as clear as noonday. Accused are judged by their looks, not by the evidence brought against them. Most questionable decisions hare been too often given in Mr. Beckham's absence in tho Eesident "Magistrate's Court in Auckland. Tlie truth is, as we said on a late occasion, the time has fully arrived when an assistant resident magistrate should be appointed—a duly qualified, paid, and responsible officer. We trust that the Attorney-General will, at tlie earliest opportunity, make arrangements for the provision for this requirement, and that an end may as speedily as possible be put to a state of things which is bringing our local court of justice into contempt. We would also suggest a revision of the list of names upon the Commission of the Peace in this Province. In the city of Auckland alone there are living over fifty J.P.'s, amongst them some holding very subordinate and dependent positions.