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Westport Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 3273, 25 November 1884, Page 2

It is to be presumed that the proposed removal of Mr Waeden Revell is pursuant to the recommendation of the Goldfields Committee, made during the late session, that all Wardens should be removed every three years. If this is so, all we can say is that the regulation, while doubtless appearing ve'y good in theory, must utterly fail in practice, and, besides being a source of great expense to the Government, will eventually drive the best Wardens out of the service. The term of service in each district suggested by the Goldfields Committee is too absurdly short to serve any good purpose. In the case of Mr Revell's removal to Naseby, the proceeding appears to us to be especially unfair, altogether unnecessary, and not what should be expected from the Department of "Justice." Here we have the pioneer Warden of the West Coast, an officer who, for 30 years has faithfully performed duties of a most difficult nature, very often at risk of his life, more particularly in the early days of Coast settlement, when roads and bridges were sparse. And no one will be found to assert that Mr Revell has not done his Court work conscientiously and impartially. In the hundreds of thousands of cases decided by him, one-half the litigants were, of necessity, worsted, and it is only natural some among them should have placed their ill-fortune to the charge of the Bench ; but that is the inevitable lot of every Magistrate. One very fair gauge of the impartiality or otherwise of a Magistrate's decisions is to be found in the number of successful appeals therefrom ; and Mr Revell has the proud consciousness that in his case there have been very few indeed. With such a proud record, then, as that possessed by Mr Revell, it is a shock to one's sense of what is fair and right to learn that he is to be compelled to break up his home and betake himself to the charge of a district inferior in importance to those in which he has hitherto served the country so faithfully. In the first place, the great mass of the community can see no good reason for shifting Mr Revell at all ; but if he is to be removed why should he sutler by the change ? Such a course is but poor reward for past services, and anything but encouraging to other Magistrates. We hope yet to hear of some alteration in the arrangements.