The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News and The Morning News. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1871.

Auckland Star, Volume II, Issue 597, 8 December 1871, Page 2

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News and The Morning News.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1871.

" For the cauep. that lacks aeoiiitanoe. For the wrong that needs resistance. For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do

We perfectly exonerate our respected Eesident Magistrate from any blame in connection with the case yesterday tried in the Police Court respecting the nuisance in Alten Eoad. His duty is to administer the law only on the evidence laid before him, and had he travelled out of the information supplied to him from the witness-box he would have exceeded that . duty. But that justice miscarried there will be no doubt to the mind of anyone reading the report of the case as published in our issue of yesterday. A disgusting nuisance exists at., .he place indicated Of that fact passersby have the reliable testimony of their senses of sight and smell. The attention of the Inspector of Nuisauces was drawn to it through the correspondence columns of a contemporary. That, officer visited the place in company with a constable. The evidence was clear enough to his own mind as to the source of the nuisance. But, with commendable zeal and precaution against mistake, he went to the rear of the buildings,, and lifted a valve, and the constable set to watch observed the filthy matter flow out into the channel by the public highway. Nothing, apparently, could be more unmistakable, and had the defendant not employed one of our most ingenious and clever lawyers, there cannot be a doubt that he would have been compelled to abate the nuisance. As it was, the Inspector of Nuisances, who has shown himself, in the case, to be a faithful and painstaking officer, was left undefended by the City Council, to be bewildered by the, legal acumen ; brought to bear on him, and was made to.prove, forsooth, that he had himself; committed a nuisance by opening the j valve, that the drain may have also j had communication with other houses, that he did not know if the locality was or was not within the city bounds,! and so forth ; all of which would have | been provided for had the case been: placed in the hands of a lawyer' able to cope with Mr. Beveridge ;] and the costs of a prosecution' that failed only through the bung-, ling of the City Council, is now* thrown on the ratepayers. We do not hesitate to say that if thisis the manner in which the City' Council is going to conduct prosecu-; tions the sooner we revert to the old; system the better- Mr. Beveridge very properly did the very best for hi*' client, and the result of the casej reflects great credit on that gentle man. But when the City Council observed that an advocate was em J ployed to defend, who would be sura to leave no stone unturned to deliver, his client, it was the duty of the, Council to have employed a eleven lawyer in opposition, who would botq

get up the case and meet the difficulties as they arose in Court. This is a case that cannot be allowed to rest as it is, and we call on the City Council to protect their officer and to protect the public. The defendant in this case has had .the bravery to defy the public ; another gentleman in the same district, on being remonstrated with for a similar nuisance, had the proper, feeling to at once suppress the offence. This defendant has, on the contrary, had the courage to fight the public, and insist on his right to thrust his filthy nuisance**) in their face, and we assert - that it is the duty of the City Council* at any cost, to crush the incipient opposition to the rules of decency. The Inspector of .Nuisances has done his duty faithfully and well, and the City Council should formally exonerate their officer from the blame that has been thrown upon him. The city is full enough of abominations without any one being allowed to say that he will defend hi§:'contribution to. the poisons in the atmosphere ; and the Council may rely that public sympathy will attend them' in a struggle with any one who dares to assume a defiant attitude, and say that he will create what abominable nuisauce he pleases, and compel the public to submit.