ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE IN WESTLAND.

West Coast Times, Issue 256, 18 July 1866, Page 3

ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE IN WESTLAND.

(TO THE BDITOB OF THE WEST COA3T TIMES.)

Sir, — In your issue of thiß morning you notice the omission from the Judge's charge to the Grand Jury, of some of the strongest and most promising features that marked his last address- In doing so you expressd a feeling not only generally current, but the natural consequence of our long endurance of the evilß resulting from the present deficient means for the administration of criminal justice, and the loss arising to mercantile men from, the ftate of the bankruptcy laws.

Theße evils are so patent that every one degires to see them removed ; but we must bear in mind that Governments — if they have no other — have the one divine attribute, of helping those that help themselves. On his first visit, Mr Gresson made a charge to the Grand Jury (quoted by you) which invited an earnest representation of the wants of the district, and, indeed, took to himself the task of attacking some of the most flagrant neglects under which it suffered. The Grand Jury replied by a " milk-and-water " concurrence in " his Honor's views," expressed in the mildest manner. And yet these were the very men whose supposed grievances the Judge had been attacking !

The natural deduction to be drawn by any one not living in our midst and personally knowing our circumstances — the gentlemen on the Wellington Treasury benches amongst others — is, that that the Judge had attacked •with unnecessary warmth, wrongs which, he must have magnified, since we, the sufferers, did not much care for their removal.

Is it quite reasonable, Mr Editor, to expect Mr G-resson gratuitously to put himself in that position again ? But, whether Mr G-resson represented our wants to the Government or not, certain it is, that shortly after his departure, the " Gazette" contained a proclamation, constituting the West Coast two districts under the " District Courts Act," — one in Canterbury and one in the Nelson Province.

This was the first step towards giving us a Kesident •District Judge, with oxtensive criminal jurisdiction, and all the powers of the Supreme Court in insolvency : — but the West Coast made no sign, and at that atago the matter stopped then, am} stops still. If, now, we want to get rid of our disadvantages, let us hope that our Grand Jury will Bpeak out like men who know what they want, and are not afraid to ask for ifc ; for the judges of the Supreme Court, we may depend on it, will not take perambulating trips to find out what wo require — undertake all the trotfble of obtaining it for vs — and then • supplicate us to accept it. Tours, &c, Common Sense,

' I think,' said a felltrw the other day, * I think I should make a good Parliament man, for I use their language. I received tWo bills a short time since, with requests for immediate payment ; the one I ordered to bo laid on the table, the other to be read that day six months.' A poor fellow who was recently singing the part of St. Bris, in the " Huguenots," at the Bordeaux Theatre, was hissed. The effect was most serious ; he stopped in bewilderment, and shortly after fell down on the stage 1 in a paralytic fit. i The advantages of a love based upon intel- | lectual sympathy, is its continuing to deepen 1 with the improving of the woman's mmd — I not lessened, at all by the age-ing or altering 1 of such beauty as had nothing to do with it. j The best way to prevent a kitchen door creaking is to got a servant lass * who. has a sweetheart that slily coraeß to the house to see her. A Poser. — As a schoolmaster was employed } the other day, in Scotland, in his delightful task of teaching a sharp urchin to cipher on the slate, the precocious pupil put the following question to his instructor : — " Whaur di_ a' the figures gang till when there rubbit out ?" 111 1 1 1 ____________

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