Wanted—A Resident Magistrate.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume III, Issue 692, 19 July 1882, Page 2

Wanted—A Resident Magistrate.

“ Settler’s ” letter, which appeared in our last issue, once more directs public attention to the urgent need in this town of a Resident Magistrate. Ever since Mr Wood’s departure for fresh Magisterial fields, now considerably more than six months ago, we have possessed only a fractional part, so to speak, of a Resident Magistrate, the periodical visits of Mr Beswick countfor little. This is not Mr Beswick’s fault. He has quite enough to do at Timaru, where there is a sitting of the Magistrate’s Court three or four days in the week, and sometimes oftener, and at most of which he is expected to preside. Then this hard-worked gentleman has to put in an appearance on certain days at Temuka and Geraldine, and fills up his time by attending inquests, occasional fire enquiries, etc. What wonder that Ashburton has to suffer, and that the cases of suitors, as our correspondent remarks who, may possibly have ccme with their witnesses longdistances.areoften either adjourned or left to be adjudicated upon by a bench ot Justices? The Justices themselves no doubt feel the absence of a Resident Magistrate as keenly as anyone. To business men time is money, and they must frequently find the encroachment on their time a very great inconvenience. The honor of attaching J.P. to one’s name is hardly compensated for by the sacrifice of time demanded of our Justices since the Government thought fit to deprive us of the services

of d Resident Magistrate. When Mr Wood left Us it was understood that the arrangement with Mr Beswick to visit us once a week was a merely temporary one ; in this, as it appears, however, we reckoned without our host. Attention has been so frequently drawn to the necessity that exists in Ashburton for a Resident Magistrate that we trust the Government will see the expediency of appointing -one with the least possible delay. As the matter is one of so much public importance, we should be glad to see it taken up by the public themselves.