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New Zealand Herald and Auckland Gazette, Volume I, Issue 43, 15 January 1842, Page 2

The Court of Requests, for this district, closed its sittings, and terminated its proceedings for debts under £SO, in the beginning of this week, and we may safely say, that the judgments given have caused universal satisfaction to all parties concerned. Those parties who were under the disagreeable necessity of summoning their debtors for the just payment of their debts, are quite satisfied that injustice has been done to them, and the opposition parties are equally satisfied with the unreasonable length of time that has been granted to them to meet their engagements; this is a crying evil, and we do not see why a creditor should be punished by having to wait 3 or 6 months out of his money, after having perhaps given a very long credit, and indigencies given to improvident individuals, who contract debts almost without the slightest prospect of being able to pay them. In this last Court there were, we understand, upwards of £3OOO sued for, and a considerable portion of this was owing by persons in the employ of government; for this class of individuals, there ought not to be a shadow of excuse they well know their incomes, and it is really a disgrace to see such parties being sued in the " little go'' we should like to see a general order issued, that all government officers who allowed their names to be called at the Court of Requests, should immediately be dismissed their respective situations; and we cannot either see any justice in these parties, when they are compelled to appear there, to be allowed a longer time than any one else. There has been some gross mismanagement in the issuing of summonses by the proper authorities, after being duly taken out by individuals ; one instance came to our knowledge of a summons being taken out tor three weeks before the time, and yet was not served in proper time. On the 11th September last, the following order was issued by the Commissioner. " It is ordered, that from and after the publi-

cation of this Rule, no Summons will be issued for any future court, unless the same be taken out and served upon the defendant at least Jive days before the day of hearing." And in the Court of Requests that has just been sitting, notice was given that the Court would be held on the 6th of the month. We were ourselves obliged to apply for a number of summonses, and our clerk was instructed to sue .all defaulters up to a certain day, he accordingly, at 3 o'clock of the 31st day of last month, applied for forty-three summonses against various individuals, by which we expected I to hava recovered near five hundred pounds, and what has been the result ? Why about ten were settled previous to court commencing, for trifling sums, and about ten more were called on, some of which were heard, and judgment given, although it' was admitted, thatnowe had been served five days, j and others (in two instances, government officers), were dismissed because they were not served five i days ; now where was this gross impartiall.ity and mismanagement ? our part was duly performed, as i our cases did not come on until the 10th, but at all events there was more than five days from the time of taking out the summonses to the court sitting. Why on the part of government i n not i having proper officers to make out the summonses,' and when made out, by entrusting them in a free colony, and among free born Britons, to an old Van Diemen's Land Convict to serve them; this person, who after serving out his sentence, kept a house'of ill fame at Hobart Town, is certainly a very able person to be placed in a government situation, and is in keeping with the other pet officer i'who we believe is also to be a bailiff) Shaw, who has more than once we understand, been under the gallows and reprieved. We are really astonished at men of this grade meeting with any encouragement at the hands of a government wishing to be called liberal; (he unfortunate results of these selections are now being felt, a boon was first granted to us, of suing for sums under £SO, Snd is then made void by the neglect and misjudgment of every person connected with the Court of Requests. We have sufficiently pointed out that the complaints which appear universal, have not been the fault of the public, but on the part of some parties connected with the Court of Requests, whose duty it was to have seen that the summonses were served within the prescribed time. We however hear, and indeed it was officially announced from the Bench, by the Commissioner himself, that a new Commissioner would be appointed for the next sitting of the Court; we ran only say, it is a " consummation devoutly to be wished," and we trust that a new Commissioner will give also general satisfaction, but of a very different nature.