RESIGNATION OF MR. SHARP, R.M.

Colonist, Volume XV, Issue 1502, 16 February 1872, Page 5

RESIGNATION OF MR. SHARP, R.M.

' Br the resignation of Mr. John Sharp of the office ' of Resident Magistate, an experienced and efficient , officer, who for over 20 years hiis been in the ■ Government service, retires from that service. Mr. Sharp retires with the good wishes and respect of the public, who appreciate hia industry and his equitable dealing, both since he was raised to the Kesident Magistracy, and previously. While bearing testimony to the prevalence of this feeling on the occasion of Mr. Sharp's retirement, and concurring in the complimentary remarks which fell from Mr. Henry Adams, the Crown Solicitor, and Solicitor of the Province, in bidding farewell to Mr. Sharp, on behalf of the local bar; it cannot but be regretted that any injudicious writer aa in the Examiner, or noless injudicious speaker, as Mr. Atkinson, should have marred ther unanimity and pleasant complimentary form which such a farewell usually takes. It was not necessary to introduce either party feeling, or political criticism, or to deliberately mislead the publio with respect to the cause of Mr. Sharp's retirement. As a paid public officer, there is no indelicacy in narrating a few of the circumstances whic'i led to this result, and it is the more necessary to do so, becnue of the carping spirit in which Mr. Atkinson, "although the junior member of the bar," deemed it his duty to indulge. When the new Land Transfer Act came into operation, in 1870, it was held that the Examiner of Titles and Registrar must both be lawyers, and Mr. Sharp was therefore relieved of the office be held as Registrar of D^eds. A protest against this decision was entered in these columns at tho time, because we believed that Mr. Sharp w s every way qualified in practice and knowledge to remain in office as Registrar. The opiniou of the A ttorneyGeneral, however, decided the other way. Subsequently in order to make up for the loss of this offioe, Mr. Sharp was appointed, ii addition to his UcaiJent Magistracy and the Sub-Oommissiontrship of Stamps, to the office of Sub-Commissioner of Life Assurance and Annuities, and Inspector of Postoffice Money orders, which made tho total salary, including £50 lor travelling allowance, £675. In the course of last year, Mr. Sharp directed his attention to private business, and became a partner i.. a large and flourishing brewery establishment, which necessitnted the ownership of various public-houses. The confidence the public reposed in Mr. Sharp, prevented any remark on the incongruity of one person holdicg the position of a paid Magistrate, and also that of a brewer and owner of pub!ic-h)uses within his own judicial district. Such a combinaj tion of offices is wholly against the principle and ] practice of the law of England, which provides that a Justice of the Peaco who is a brewer, or sells liquor, cannot oven sit on the bench on matters referring to licences. About the end of last year, or beginning of the present, the office of SubComusissioner of Insurance and Annuities, and that of Inspector of Money Order* wero abolished, the work being left mainly to the Chief Postmaster of the Province. This reduced the emoluments of tho Resident Magistrate by £203, and we believe Mr. Sharp thereupon elected to resign office, and to give himself solely to the business in which he hud foi some time been a partner, and which we tru3b will prove highly lucrative to him and his. The arrangements thus made, and theappointmentcf Mr. Broad iv room of Mr. Sharp, and the amalgamating of offices which the Re3ideDt Magistrate can satisfactorily perform, will effect a saving of nearly £400, besides dispensing with the Wungapeka Warden. We believe the duties will not be less efficiently performed, and perhaps when Mr. Atkinson next attempts to drag in political feeling, in places, and under circumstances where its absence is particularly good company, he will endeavor at least to ba logical, iv prelerence to being mysterbusly oracular. A saving of some £400 a year in the very direction in which, in a comic effort, that gentleman at a recent meeting, pointed out should be taken by the Government, is not after all any good grouud for the tragic shudder and lugubrious look ho appears to hava assumed so out of place on Wedneedity morniujf. We rejret the resignation of an able Magistrate liko Mr. Sharp, bub he has resigned to better himself, and we hope lie will do so ; but the public will not fail to recognise the consideration of the Government in appointing Mr. Broad, who has for nine years been a Resident Magistrate of this Colony. And it is a pity that tha Examiner and Mr. Atkinsou should groan over what is being done in the very way they have been urging the Government to walk , in the matter of office-holders. How there is any incompatibility between the , offices of Resident Magistrate and Sheriff, it is not easy to perceive, yet it is averred with accustomed i taste, that "no Resident Magistrate with self* < respect, or regard for the proper discharge of hie duty, could thiuk of filling the office of Sheriff at the , same time." Tho acouraoy of this sentenoa is iv , keeping with its taste, for it has beon the custom for , years past to amalgamate the offices of Resident < Magistrate and Sheriff, as witness tho appointments , of Mr. Coutts Crawford, at Wellington, Dr. Grilei, at , Westpart, and Mr, Fitzgerald, at Hjkitika. Wa do not suppose that these gentleman are " wanting in i self-respect, or regard for the proper discharge of their duties," nor can any reasonable person deem ( it infra dig. to hold an office, the equivalent of which at Home makes its possessor the first nun in the \ county, and by the New Zaaland Sheriffs Acts, of 1858 and 1863, " all the powers, privilege, duties, and , responsibilities," which these oUL'ers enjoy in England, are conferred upou Sheriffs hare. There is one piece of vain, show that might; ba dispensed with iv the duties of the Sheriff, aid tutt ia hia appearance in a black drass suit, and with a white rod in the Supreme Court. In these common sense days, and ia tueso latitulas, supirdujus judical ornamentation is by no means required.