Vagaries of the Law.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5610, 15 November 1889, Page 3

Vagaries of the Law.

The Wellington Post points out the glorious uncertainties of the law in the appeal case in )■<• Ford : " The case was a simple one, and was originally heard by Mr Justice Denniston. 'J he case was one of interpretation of a provision of the Bankruptcy Act as to payment of preferential wages claims. The matter was fully argued before Mr Justice Denniston, but the learned Judge held himself precluded from forming an independent judgment, because the same point had already been decided by Mr Justice Clillies, and that decision followed by Mr Justice Williams. Mr Justice Denniston admits he was convinced by counsel's argument that these decisions were wrong, but as bound by precedent he was forced to add a third wrong decision to the two which had gone before. How long, however, would tiii.s sort of thing have gone on, wrong decision being piled on wrong decision, had not Ford appealed, and how many other cases are there where precedent has been permitted to overrule law, common sense, and justice, because some judge having blundered in the first instance, the aggrieved party chose to let the decision pass, instead of appealing. Yesterday Mr Justice Williams frankly admitted that he had been convinced by Dr. Foster's able argument that his own decision, following Mr Justice Gillies', was erroneous, and Mr Justice Denniston felt himself at liberty to reverse in the higher Court the decision which, against his own convictions, he had felt bound to follow in thu Court below. Verily, the law and its administration are fearful and wonderful things. The lay mind is incapable of conceiving its mysteries, to sustain which the lay purse is so freely bled. Judges are too apt to, like sheep, blindly "follow their leader."

The agricultural department in Washington has been collecting information with respect to the alarming increase and really appalling ravages of the sparrow in the United States. The bird was first brought to that country in 1850, and it lias now established itself over an area of 885,000 square miles, and over one of 148,000 square miles in Canada. It is an omnivorous feeder, but is rarely an insect eaters ; and it makes desperate war on the birds which are the farmers' and fruitgrowers' natural allies. Its fecundity is tnormous, and it produces from four to six broods a year. In view of the frightful devastation it is committing, the department of agriculture recommends the enactment of laws to legalise the killing of the bird at all seasons of the year, and the destruction of its nests, eggs, or young ; to make it a misdemeanor to give food or shelter to the bird, and to protect those birds which feed upon the sparrow, and the appointment of some officer in each town or village to destroy the sparrows in the streets, parks, and other places where the use of firearms is not permitted. The offering of bounties for the destruction of the birds is not regarded by the department as expedient. To the general public the department recommends intelligent, united, and persistent efforts to exterminate the pest by the use of firearms, traps, poison, destruction of nests, disturbance at roosting places, and any other practicable n..othod that can be devised. (