THE REFEREE APPEAL CASE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8483, 6 February 1891, Page 5

THE REFEREE APPEAL CASE.

[BY TELEGRAPH. — PRESS .ASSOCIATION.] Christciiurch, Thursday. Mr. Justice Denniston to-day issued a prohibition forbidding the Resident Magistrate from proceeding further in re conviction of Selig and Bird, proprietors of the Referee, who in October last were each fined £50 or three months' imprisonment for a breach of the Gaming and Lottery Act by taking money to invest on the totalisator and not doing so, but presumably paying totalisator dividends on those that won. The Judge held that there was no evidence that the money had not been put on the totalisator though Selig and Bird had not done so themselves, and that the evidence in the case was not consistent with their having contrived a scheme of betting totalisator odds. Probably, however, the money had not been pub on the totalisator ; but that, though a fraud, would not affect their clients as long as Selig and Bird were solvent. He would not give costs against the Magistrate. It was contended that an application for prohibition only applied where the magistrate had exceeded his jurisdiction; but Justice Denniston considered it applied to other cases, though he would like the point settled by a higher Court.