THE MYSTERY OF THE LAW.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 793, 16 April 1910, Page 3

THE MYSTERY OF THE LAW.

Sir, —As an amateur I don't pretend to understand law. We pay gentlemen who make it their business to understand it for us, with the result that these legal professors invariably get rich, while we, their clients, grow steadily poorer. We are taught tp believo thut under British law every man is held to be equal —that wherever the British flag flies pure justice is uictcd out to'rich and poor alike. ,1 would like to nsk our highlypaid judges is it so. If we take a trip to Hong-Kong to-day (which is a British colony) we will find that our solicitors are compelling Chinese to admit opium into their country; while in New Zealand, under the same flag, and under the same law, the same kind "of Chinaman is hounded down as a criminal for doing what we are compelling exactly that same branch of Chinaman to do in his own country.. Then again, sir, everybody knows that in New Zealand gambling is strictly prohibited. • Well, if you had been at Tronthain. on Wednesday last you would slightly alter your opinion. Why, there

was more money changed pockets fcn thai day than would Have supported the Wellington Hospital for two years. Now let/us take a turn on the wharf. In some quiet corner we find Bill Grafter and his mates tossing two pennies,- with the chance of winning or losing a shilling. Now, if Bill is caught at it up he goes. Ten pounds or a month on the hill. Then, again, Mr. Fat Chow, for selling a six : penny pakapoo ticket to Probationer bkunk is fined .£2O, or three months on thehiU. And again, Mr. Hooligan, selling one bottle of beer to the same probationer, £5, or a fortnight. Now we come to something, more respectable—police t. a certain newspaper company. Now, I don't pretend.to know whether that company did 'anything. wrong,, but I want to show how differently ' the law treats Grafter, Fat Chow, and Hooligan to. what it does people of loftier station , when they break;the law. In this case big issues were, involved, and the law said that the defrsdeats were guilty; in fact, the defendants admitted it. Their solicitor hinted that the other side would ac-' oept a nominal fine, say 40s. His Worship thought so too. If gambling is to be prohibited, leftho' law-treat all alike, and not be a laughing stock and worse.— I tin, etc., AMATEUR, Lower Hutt, April .12. ........ [Our correspondent overlooks the' fact that the law of New Zealand is not the same as that of Hong-Kong. Gambling in certain forms is legalised in New Zealand.] .',"'.;;;,...'.'■'' ..■ v. v ;,.;.• •