COUNTY COURT, RUSSELL.

Auckland Chronicle and New Zealand Colonist, Volume 2, Issue 51, 25 July 1844, Page 2

COUNTY COURT, RUSSELL.

Owing ‘to bad weather and bead winds, tlio ** Dolphin,’’ C which conveyed F Whitaker, Esq.’, Judge,and W. Donnell), E,«q., Crown Prosecutor, ) did not arrive at lire Bay of Ishnds until the 17th Huly, being a day alter the time fixed, consequentto hold the County Court Sessiou. The t Ordinance ” must be very defective, or a provision would have made for such casualties, especially when-, thjere. is. nothing but water coinmnnication, and in suoh cases the Judge >hon!d have had the power of proceeding with the business upon his arrival, as tire law stands the Judge could not proceed, therefore returned to Auckland, Great complaints are made by the peo# pleat the Bay in consequence, some Jurymen and Wimesses being subpeened from a distance of twenty miles, and one prosecutor attended from Coromandel Harbour with witnesses at a great ex« pense. The prisoners also who expected their cases to come on, are sent back to the murderous doghole of a jail at Rnsseil; a little damp, cold, daik* unhealthy prison, with no jail-yard for the prisoners lo exeicise themselves in. According to all ac* counts we hear of this prison, it takes about nine months imprisonment to kill 'u stroug heallhy tnan, and weak constitutions drop off in about four months, so much for humanity ! which we suppose is all exhausted on the “ dear MaorieS,” attd none left for Europeans. People at the Bay or Islands are anxious that the County Court should he held there, as soon as possible; and they very reasonably gru'mble at the idea of being compelled to attend with witnesses, Sec , at Auckland, which they say will cost the government upwards of £IOO for theirconveyanoe. VV'epe'Ceive by a proclamation in the Government Gazette of Tues 'ay. 23rd July, that Ciicuit Courts will be held twice a year by udge Martin, at Russel, for the depatch of Civil and Criminal bust, ness. On the Ist of Oc ober in the present year, and on the Ist of April, and Ist of Octobsr in every succeeding year.