HOTEL OWNERS AS JUSTICES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 9383, 24 March 1892, Page 2

HOTEL OWNERS AS JUSTICES.

(Peb United Press Association.)

Wanganui, March 23,

The attack recently made upon the mayor (Mr A.. J. Parsons) by Mr W. G. Bissett through the public prints called forth a strong protest from the Bench at the Resident Magistrate's Court this morning, when Mr F. A. Krull, chairman of the justipes, referred to the unwarrantable strictures that had been passed upon a brother justice because he happened to be owner of a hotel. The attack, he considered, was unfair. While admitting that every legitimate means should be taken to repress the evils of drinking, he thought that to throw a slur upon Mr Parsons and dispute his rights as a magistrate because he was the owner of a hotel property was an error, and would not tend to help the cause of the Prohibitionists. In lodging his public protest against the attack, the chairman referred to Sir Polydore Keyser, who, while a publican, was elected Lord Mayor of London and was knighted by her Majesty and honoured by the King of the Belgians, thus showing the estimation in which he was generally held. Public feeling is running high here _ between the Moderate and the Prohibition parties. .