BREACH OF THE POST OFFICE ACT.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4217, 25 September 1874, Page 3

BREACH OF THE POST OFFICE ACT.

(From the Southern Cross.) Xn consequence of the refusal of Captain Grainger, of the mail steamer Macgregor, to deliver up the English mail imtil he had been paid for bringing it from San Francisco, he acting under the directions he had received from the owners of that vessel, a summons was issued agrinst him at the instance of the Postmaster, and the ease was brought before the Resident Magistrate, The information, which was laid under the 29th section of the New Zealand Post Office Act, set forth that the informant had just cause to suspect and doth suspect that one Horace Grainger being master of a certain ship, the Macgregor, had on the 15th September been guilty of a breach of the above section of the Act by refusing and neglecting to deliver on demand to the Postmaster at Auckland a certain mail then being on board the said ship. The Crown solicitor, Mr. Brookfield, represented the Postmaster, and Mr. MacCormick appeared on behalf of the defendant. The case came on at twelve o'clock, after the ordinary business of the Court, and was adjourned until half-past one, at the instance of Mr. MacCormiek, for the purpose of enabling him and his client to have an interview with the Premier, with a view of coming to some amicable arrangement. The Court was re-opened at halfpast one, the complainant and defendant both appearing with their counsel. Mr. Brookfield at once informed the Court that he was happy to say that the matter had been adjusted, and that Captain Grainger had agreed to deliver up the mail to the Postmaster. Mr. MacCormick stated that Captain Grainger had only acted according to the instructions he had received before sailing from the owners of the Macgregor, and was unaware that by so doing he was committing an illegal act. He regretted the step-he had taken, and was prepared to at once deliver up the mail. —Under these circumstances, Mr. Brookfield said he would, with the permission of the Court, withdraw the charge, though he could not help thinking it was a very shabby thing on the part of the owners of the vessel, considering that the New Zealand Government had paid every penny of the subsidy due by them for the transmission of the mail, to the contractors, and had not in a single instance exacted the penalties they might have done for the repeated breaches of the agreement which had taken place, though he could not say that such a course would be adopted in the future.—The summons then being withdrawn, his Worship formally dismissed the case.