Our Contributors.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume V, Issue 513, 14 June 1881, Page 3

Our Contributors.

OUR SYDNEY LETTER

(From our Own Correspondent)

Sydney, May 31

Since my last, two trials of some considerable interest have been concluded. The charming expensive uncertainty of that gigantic humbug, "British legal procedure," has received another illustration in the result of the Bulletin libel case. Your readers will recollect that a few months since a well-known solicitor of this city obtained a well-deserved £1000 damages from tho proprietor of the Bulletin for a serious libel, for which, moreover, no real foundation was attempted to be shown. It is probable that the verdict, which was popular, had more than a little to do with. the more recent case, the plaintiffs in which must have strangely and strongly relied upon the prejudice existing against the Bulletin, or they could not have hoped for a verdict. The proprietors of some picnic grounds at Clontarf (down the harbor) sued the proprietors of the Bulletin for libel contained in a well-written, vigor-ously-penned article, reflecting upon the proceedings at a public picnic on Boxingday, which took place upon the grounds of plaintiffs. The evidence of numerous witnesses of respectability and independence proved that the proceedings were far worse than shown by the Bxdletin, and, to the great surprise of everyone, an " enlightened jury " found a verdict for plaintiffs,damages one farthing; thereupon Sir William Manning, the " second Daniel," at once gave costs on both sides to plaintiffs, a most unusual thing to do upon a farthing damages. Mr Salamons was the leading counsel for the Bulletin ; Mr Darley, Q.C., assisted by Mr Manning—son of the judge, I believe—and possibly helped by tho " Misses Manning," were for the plaintiffs. " H'inc illce lachrymce!" The public are rather indignant at this unmistakeable attempt by judge and jury to gag the press while simply doing its bouuden duty, and meetings of sympathy, backed up by golden sovereigns, have been the order of the day. The costs are estimated at £1200, and this sum the public propose to subscribe, in order to undo an injury done by the very tribunal which is, by a popular fiction, supposed to be established for the purpose of redressing wrongs. Adolph Bechet was convicted of setting fire to Ills warehouse for tbe purpose of defrauding insurance companies of £16 000, and sentenced to seven years' hard labor upon the roads. Judge Windeyer " gave it to him pretty hotly" while about to pass sentence, and told him that the penalty was fifteen years, but that the recommendation to mercy of the jury (on what grounds goodness only knows) would be attended to, and that seven years of earning a hard but honest living was to be the cruel fate of Mr Bechet. The evidence was chiefly circumstantial, and very strong ; but, as the prisoner had been a "genial cuss," he seemed to have plenty of friends in Court, and, like most great criminals, had plenty of believers in his imv ceuce. The insurance companies can just breathe freely for a while, and congratulate themselves upon a narrow escape.

The house of a Chinese merchant is quarantined by the police on account of a supposed case of small-pox in a child. Recent arrivals of Chinese were stoned by a lot of cowardly roughs, who delight in this argumcntum ad hominem, and the anti-Chinese feeling is becoming more intense ; and it is to be hoped that, whatever measures of repression are adopted, the Government of Sir Henry Parker will not allow themselves to be made " tools of oppression " by an excited, illogical, and not altogether disinterested section of the public. Something will and ought to bo done, but fiat justitia, or at all events a little of it! The tram cars continue to be fearfully overcrowded, and have latterly taken to running off the rails. The rains of the last few days have caused subsidence of the roads, and parts of the lines will have to be relaid. Most of the lines are single, and have others branching off at intervals, and until double lines are laid the traffic will be of necessity far too heavy for the safety or comfort of passengers. Saturday suburban land sales, with free trains or trams thereto, also feeds {i.e., lunches) gratis, continue to flourish. " Where pigeons are found, the hawks abound." Not that I would insinuate for a moment that swell auctioneers, wh. arc. perhaps churchwardens or deacons in some *' Little Bethel," would for a moment no, certainly not. The bids are all genuine, the advertisements all true, and the sellers all public benefactors ; and if any one says to the contrary, let him be anathema. I little thought, when joking about the Tararaa in a former letter of mine, that she was about leaving Sydney for the last time.. Well, we must all meet the inevitable, and I won't moralise. The levee postponed from the Queen's Birthday took place on the 28th inst., and was very largely attended, notwithstanding unpropitious weather. The clergy complain of the large number of people who attend Mr Charles Bright's Sunday evening harangues. It is a very great pity that the clergy are so unwilling to give to their occasional hearers the overwhelming evidence they possess of the truth of the Gospel of Christ, so tint hundreds of people are led to believe that the Christian religion is a pure matter of opinion, and that Mr Bright is as likely to be right as anyone else. The weather has been cold and wet lately,, but is now clearing.