The Ashburton Guardian. Magna Est Veritas et Prevalebit. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 29. 1886. STRANGE MISCONDUCT.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1443, 29 December 1886, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna Est Veritas et Prevalebit. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 29. 1886. STRANGE MISCONDUCT.

The details of a very strange, and happily rare, case of misconduct on the part of a Justice of the Peace are supplied to the Neiu Zealand Herald by its Wellington correspondent. The particulars appear to have been locally known for some time but have not until now, so far as we are aware, appeared in print. The leading features of the charge against the Justice in question, who is stated to be carrying on the business of a chemist, are that he “ had used his position as a magistrate, and his personal influence, for the purpose of gross oppression. It was alleged that a widow woman, the recipient of public charity, had incurred his resentment because she would not yield to his wishes. To injure her this Justice of the Peace caused fictitious letters to. be sent to the Benevolent Society, charging the woman with admitting men to her house at all hours of the night. One of the letters purported to be signed by a woman named Morgan, and the other by a man named Thompson. The widow was refused assistance for a time, but her statement that this magistrate had made improper proposals to her, caused enquiry to be made, from which it was discovered that the woman Morgan and the man Thompson were wholly fictitious persons, and had no existence.” These circumstances coming under the notice of the Minister for Justice, Mr Tole, during his recent visit to Auckland, sent for the Magistrate referred to and subjected him to a very searching examination, the result of which (says the Herald's correspondent) “ was to satisfy Mr Tole that be was not a proper person to be clothed with the Commision of the Peace." Accordingly, the whole case was brought before the Executive Council, which decided to recommend the removal of the name of the misdemeaning Magistrate from the roll of Justices. This is undoubtedly a severe punishment, but not more so than the facts stated, if fully substantiated, wairanted, we may write demanded, and Mr Tole is indeed to be congratulated upon his firmness in carrying out the very proper determination that the dignity of the Bench shall not be impaired by the entrusting of judicial functions to persons who can be guilty of such gross misconduct.