Correspondence.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2268, 13 August 1870, Page 2

Correspondence.

[We arc not responsible for the opinions expressed by our correspondents.] POUT CHALMER'S MAGISTRACY. To the Editor of the. Evening Star. Si r, —I was a little annoyed in reading th report of the Port Chalmers Town Council in the Daily Tunes of the 11th inst., in which a member is made to say in a discussion about some matter that would likely he brought into the Magistrate’s Court here; “That he would second the resolution if . the case were tried before a Dunedin Magis* ■ iiv u.ru !

trate;” and the indignant rejoinder front, the proposer that “he would, not, accept such a seconding; he had more' confidence in the Bench —if it was not'pUre, he would do away with it altogether.” I think* Mr Editor, that it is most fortunate for Port Chalmers that the local Magistrates hold their commission from the Governor and not the Town Council, otherwise the purity of the Bench would be of doubtful parentage, and that the chairman should allow such observations to be in order, excites my surprise, especially when he,, by virtue of his office, might-ex-pect to affix the mystical initials, “J. P.”to his name some time during tbc ensuing twelvemonths ; and that.a body of men who are so extremely sensitive with regard to their own public importance should allow such a mean insult to be uttered in the Council Chamber, does not impress me Avith any groat idea of their intelligence. My motive in Avriting these lines is to convey my impression, and also that of a number of Port Chalmers residents, that the insinuation uttered in the Town Hall that the local Bench was A’enal, is a cowardly slander, and only spoken because levelled at a class of men wlio are prevented by their office from acting in the way an honest man would under such provocation. I am, &c,, Ashlar. August 12th, 1870,