THE LEGAL ATMOSPHERE OF WANGANUI.

Evening Star, Issue 4051, 19 February 1876, Page 3

THE LEGAL ATMOSPHERE OF WANGANUI.

From time .to, time reports of grave scandals in connection with, the legal professipn have reached us from Wanganui. As a rule, withra few* honorable exceptions, the Wanganui legal practitioner'is of: a special and peculiar genus. The place is notorious for its excess of litigation, and-Tience unsuccessful and broken-down members of the profession in other parts of the Colony nave eagerly flown to it. Their number has at times become so great that it was impossible they they could all find business todo. Hence the profession gradually deteriorated, and its- members took up things not quite consistent with its dignity. Some made it the chief end of their lives to ritir up animosities amongst neighbors, and thus make legal business; others did a,little. bill-discounting and farming; while, in one special case, "a man of parchments" went extensively into the boiling-down and preparation of meat extract/ business. On one point, however, every- member of the profession in Wanganui has been unanimous. They all make the highest possible charges, and a Wanganui's solicitor's' bijl of costs is a most appalling document. The evil has been borne for a time by , long-suffering clients, but of late the extreme limit of human endurance has been reached, and the victims have begun to rebel. Appeals are continually made to the Registrar '.• of the i bupreme Court to have costs taxed, the result being, in many cases, that the most exorbitant charges are found to have been made. The most flagrant instance of this kind which has occurred is recently reported by the < Wanganui Chronicle/ A bill of costs;.amounting to over L6OO was cut down JytJ l * *axing officer to a sum little over £200!! There is every reason to believe that this monstrous instance of over-charging as not a solitary one, but that many almost as bad have, through the ignorance or apathy of clients, escaped notice. The ; Vtouneb' in one issue strongly; condemns; the evil, but.appareritly the legal screw was ,T>ut it forthwith, because with that pussillanimity which is its chief characteristic, it came out the following day as the champion of the lawyers. According to this suddenly converted journal, the Wanganui lawyers are the most ill-used of men, and their bills of costs are of the most imoderate kind: If ft is proved - that, a solicitor has charged L6OO for work which would be fairly paid at L2OO, then the matter is well worthy, the attention of the Judges of the Supreme Court andthe Minister of Justice.—' Evening Post.'