LOCAL GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 9368, 18 May 1889, Page 1 (Supplement)

LOCAL GOSSIP.

-Let me hare audience for a word or two." lje —Shalcespne. Fob many reasons I have never been hard on Justices of the Peace, the "great unaid " ' 10 do so much necessary work in connection with the administration of the government of the country. They undergo uuich trouble, and they run some risk, and 8 11 for what ? That problem I have never been able quite to fathom. I think it would niake an interesting column if the editor of the Hekald would despatch some of his young lions to interview all the Justices of the Peace in the community, and to ask them the question, " Why did you become a justice ?" It would be one of the funniest columns that ever appeared in the Hekai.o, provided the interviewers would speak frankly —would make a clean breast of it. 1 can conceive men putting themselves to a ];ir<e amount of trouble from patriotic motives, and from the conviction that the position they hold, and the duties they dis. charge, are the means of bringing them o-reat honour in the community, and the the respect of their fellow-citizens. But I really don't think that any man in this society of ours in Auckland elevates himself in the least by being a justice. Ido not detect in myself any impulse to lift my hat to any fellow-citizen simply because he is a justice.

And yet it is a fact that a vast amount of intrigue goes on continually for the purpose' of getting placed on the commission of the peace. The power of recommending for such appointments is the great piece of patronage in the hands of members of the Assembly. At every election votes are secured on the promise by the candidate that if he is elected he will recommend some of his prominent supporters for the commission of the peace. I have known men co to large expense, to exert, themselves for a time night, and day, to intrigue and scheme, and act, generally on the maxim that all is fair in love, war, and electioneering, and when the contest, was over, and victory achieved for their side, it turned out that their whole and sole reward was to be made a Justice of the Peace. I knew that they were not struggling because of any great interest that 'they took in politics. I knew that they did"not. think very highly of the man they were lighting for. And perhaps the most curious thing of all was that they were satisfied with their reward—they got what they had striven for, and were pleased.

I thought that a light had dawned on me when I learned that two justices had constituted a Court at four o'clock in the afternoon. and had met to let off the son of a fellow - citizen who had been guilty of larceny from his employer, and, moreover, that the justices claim that in doing so thev acted quite within their powers as magistrates. If justices have this power, then I shall be a candidate for the position, and I shall weary the representative for my district to recommend me to my friend Sir Harry Atkinson. I could see how the position might be the means of causing some addition to my income. Ido not for a moment insinuate that Mr. J. P. King or Mr. F. G. Ewington, both of whom I know and respect, are open to any kind of bribe ; but they and all others must see how such a thing could be clone. Not a week, not a day perhaps passes in Auckland but some person is arrested on a charge of crime who would give something handsome to have the thing hushed up. I appeal to Messrs. Ewington and King to acknowledge whether publicity is not at the very basis of all pure administration of justice.- Without publicity there would be less security for purity in the courts of New Zealand than in the courts of Russia, where at all events there is a despot having an interest in the right government of the nation, and the power to see that justice is done. If when a wealthy man "got into trouble"' he could at once " square it" with the person who laid the information, and could then get justices, with an acquiescent j police, then indeed we should have one law for the rich and another for the poor ; or, rather, in that case the rich and influential would be above the power of the law altogether. There is simply not a shred of excuse for what was done. Who knows how much this has been the custom in Auckland ? I can give the Government, if they make any inquiry, some curious information as to who suggested the course which was successfully adopted. Perhaps the Government won't trouble about the matter; but, if they do not, then the subject will no doubt be brought up in the House of Representatives.

As to the plea that any informationn may be withdrawn by the informant before it is adjudicated upon, there is nothing in that. That supposes a case of personal gr'evance, such as using insulting language., or something of that sort, not a crime such as theft. The justices may alio allow an information to be withdrawn, if they are satisfied it has been laid in error. It is never to be supposed that justices will aid in compounding a felony. Do justices claim to have the pow--r to discharge a person accused when they are satisfied that a crime has been committed, unless under the Probation Act? However, as it has been asserted that the justices have such power, the matter must be settled. If they have not the power, then the Government ought to tell tlr,m so. If they have the power, hen it ought to be widely known, so that all parties may start fair, that all justices may act upon the right for the benefit of their friends and the glorification of their office.

Let the question be tested in another way. Let some criminal make it right with the person whom he has robbed, and then stand up at the ordinary sitting of the Court- and say, when the Resident Magistrate presides, " I have given back what 1 stole to the informant • he is willing to withdraw the information, therefore the proceedings cannot go on. :! To begin with, the officer of police who was conducting the proceedings would say, " We have ourselves evidence of the crime, and we must go on. I shall compel (.he prosecutor to give evidence, and probably shall prosecute him for compounding a felony." As for the Resident Magistrate, I can fancy that his face would be a picture. By the way, Mr. Ewington says that a reporter was present when the case referred to was being dealt with. lam assured on excellent authority that that gentleman is mistaken. The " court," I am informed, consisted of two justices, the clerk of the Court, the accused, his father, and the prosecutor, the police inspector, and a constable.

The colloquial stereotyped phrase, " Anything fresh' will not require to be spoken for some time to come, as doubtless the universal query during the next week or so will be, Have you seen ' Pigs in clover' yet?" This porcine puzzle is the latent specimen of American inventive skill in the line of fireside amusements, and will, 1 am told, be the absorbing sensation of the hour —to quite as great an extent as was the celebrated "No. 15" puzzle a few years back.

. there are two ways of regarding the introduction of this novelty into our midst, i ersonally, I look upon our enterprising fellow-citizen who has provided us with this new means of recreation as a public benefactor. In these times of general gloom and depression, anything which will divert the mind from brooding care should be hailed as a boon. On the other hand, seme people object to its introduction, and quote the alleged sad and disastrous results which lollowed the invention of the No. 15 atrocity. They say with trepidation, " If that . drove scores of people distracted, hundreds in Auckland will drift into drivelling idiocy over 1 Pigs in clover."' Probably were may be some justification for this view of the case, if the following extracts jrorn American papers may lie relied on Some have laboured for days and weeks Jthout .the shghtesb success, and in spite w the frequent temptation to give up in ls gust, and leave the pigs in their clover are still at it. The effect on some persons in many cases deplorable, reducing strong n l \ state of drivelling imbecility — gendering profanity to a frightful degree, anrl mn " t,lem r '° neglect their families judwps eSS '" " By statesmen, lawyers, nliant."' cl - o, '. financiers, clergymen, mernornip'l'rj 'IS railroad presidents it is proeci the greatest sensation of the day."

Bub I suppose it; is of no use warning people against the probable mental disturbance consequent upon investing in these shilling novelties. One inevitable consequence occurs to one's mind, viz., that the Scriptural parable, regarding that herd of pigs, will shortly have to be reversed. Instead of t!.j possessed porkers rushing violently down a steep place into the sea., we shall have venerable household patriarchs, adolescent " hopefuls," budding juvenility, and all the rest violently pursuing symbolical swine in the shape of marbles around that magic disc. However, people can disc over what it all refers to by conning the advertising columns of the 11 KHALI).

A friend of mine, who has the organ of general benevolence largely developed, tells 1110 that he has become a convert to Anti-Chinese doctrines, and that he is now as sound upon that goose as the most steadfast member of the Trades and Labour Council. He has been concerted not by revelations about Chinese dens and the horrors of opium, but. by observing the extreme difficulty, almost amounting to an impossibility, of administering justice when Celestials are parties to the dispute. All the legal acumen of our Resident Magistrates anil Justices of the Peace, with Dr. Laisliley and .Mr. Cotter to boot, have not been able to find whether the Chinamen mutilated a poor cow for the sin of trespassing on their ground, or whether one Chinaman struck another with.a stick. When there is such wholesale perjury in the witness box, how can pure truths bo expected when, with a soft, smile, John comes to the back door with his cabbages and potatoes '! The Chinaman is doubtless a man and a brother, but he is difficult for us to deal with. His virtues are nob our virtues, and his sins are not our sins. Probably any one of them will " kiss him bookee," or " break him glassee," or '"blow him matchee," "all a sasnee me," and then lie away like .Beelzebub. The time lost in interpreting is also a serious matter for our courts, and then you can't always be sure in respect to that department. The late Police Court cases rc mutilated cattle, without doubt the work of Chinamen, and the assault eases, have terminated most unsatisfactorily. After days of patient consideration of how Ching Ching neutralised the effect of Chow Chow, our worthy magistrate failed to make head or tail of the matter in dispute. Dr. Giles, however, has put it on record that these eases block the ordinary business of the court. These Chinamen have been very costly citizens to the colony. There would be less trouble and fighting and litigation amongst as many Irishmen.

1 heard a good story the other day, which throws a cheerful light upon the relations of labour and capital. The two central figures of it are a bloated but distinguished •J. I', in a rising suburb anil Hodge, his body servant. It. appears that Hodge wanted a place, and applied. In an unguarded moment, the '"bloated" rural, in a lit of reckless improvidence,, offered him os a-week and found. Hodge's necessities compelled his acceptance of the otter, but, while doing so, he kept his weather-eye open for something better : such is the ingratitude of the human heart! Presently, he did get something better, and left, not standing upon the order of his going, but going at once. The "bloated' 1 now wonders what on earth labour is coming to, and mourns for the good old days, never to return, when Hodge tugged his forelock to the squire, and thanked Providence for the position in which he had been placed, and desired therewith to be content.

At the lecture of Mr. Newcombe the other evening, two or three genteel hoodlums put in an appearance —not to hear the admirable address, but to annoy the audience. A -J. P. who was present stood it as long as his Scotch blood would let him, and then gave one of the boys a lick where tie thought it would do him good, accompanied with an intimation that if the conduct was repeated he would "run him in " himself. The concluding part of the injunction was the best —"If I do so, don't imagine that I will run round to find a couple of justices to make a Bench and withdraw the charge !" Mekcutio.