The Bland Bailiff of Greymouth.

Cromwell Argus, Volume II, Issue 97, 19 September 1871, Page 6

The Bland Bailiff of Greymouth.

We have heard of the swell who died in despair, because he had lost his laundress, but we scarcely expected to hear of an editor penning a long lament at losing the bailiff. But there are bailiffs upon bailiffs we suppose. At any rate the Greymouth Evening Star writes' There are those among our readers who will regret to learn that Greymouth is shortly to lose one of the most kindly and considerate of men, in the person of our bailiff. Mr Gourley shortly resigns his appointment, and it is to be hoped by all classes of the community—for nothing is more certain than death or the bailiff coming to us at some period or other—that his successor may possess his merits. Never did a man with a writ or a summons to serve have a more exquisite or delicate touch. He would meet you in the street, and, with the smile of a rather aged cherub, who had not given up the worldly habit of smoking, would place a summons in your hand in a manner which would lead one to believe that he was paying over a cheque, for which a receipt was quite unnecessary. With Mr Gourley to deal with it was sometimes a positive pleasure to receive a summons ; one felt as if a compliment were being paid him, and, u, again esteemed friend, the bailiff, had to convey a customer to the lock-np under a writ of arrest, the manner in which he perI formed the task amounted to genius. No I one who ever saw Mr Gourley in company ! with someone else, but would be quite under the belief that the two are going to dine together, or at least to drink each other’s health, success, and prosperity in life in a glass of sherry. And so in the most beautiful manner does our friend serve a ca. sa.; in the most humane, comforting, and assuring way, lie takes his client off to the lock-np after seeing that he has not neglected to provide himself with the materials for a quiet and soothing smoko. “ Here yon are !” our bailiff would say, ‘ ‘ nobody can touch yon until you get out again, and that will be very foolish for you to do until you have squared matters and made your life easy.” Now, this is the functionary we are to be deprived of, to be replaced by we know not whom. A man, if he does not like his baker or his butcher or his grocer, can change him ; but it is not in his power to do so with his bailiff; ho must take him as he finds him ; and therefore it is that we regret the retirement of a gentleman who, in the most liberal interpretation of the term, has so long been connected with the Civil Service in Greymouth, (