A GRIEVANCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11368, 10 May 1900, Page 3

A GRIEVANCE.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—l would like to draw tho attention of the citizens of Auckland to tho way that the law is being administered in our Magistrate's Court. It seems as though one has only to be summoned (now that tho plague scare is on) to be convicted and fined, whether guilty or not. I was summoned tho other day to appear at the Court and answer to tho charge of neglecting to clean my yard on a certain day, that day being the very day it was cleaned; the above being testified to by the policeman giving evidence- in the Court, and yet a conviction was recorded against me. and I had to suffer fine, costs, etc. I may say that tho cleaning up would have been dono just as soon without the police inspection, as the work was in hand when they came. I don't know now what I was fined for, as I did the very thing on the same day that I was charged with neglecting to do it. _ I noticed, too, that some of tho defendants in these sanitary cases had received notice from the sanitary inspector to do certain cleaning: others, like myself, had none. It was all the same, notice or no notice, guilty or not convicted, fined, etc. Such proceedings make one wonder whether wo are under Boer or British rule, and do not tend to cultivate any patriotic feelings in the breasts of those who are subjected to such treatment. I should bo very sorry to lose faith in this fair country, and the fairness and justico of its law courts.— I am, etc., Native.