A Magistrate Rebukes Informers.

Feilding Star, Volume XVII, Issue 22, 25 July 1895, Page 2

A Magistrate Rebukes Informers.

Mi* Bishop, Stipendiary Magistrate at Christchurch, in fining a number of Christchurch hotelkeepers on Saturday for Sunday trading, thus rebuked the informers for the means they employed to secure conviction :— Were you young men of the common informer class, doing this sort of work for fee or reward, I should not think it necessary to say one word, for we quite know how to appraise those people at their proper value. But the circumstances here are quite different. It must, I think, be con» ceded that you young men thought you were doing good and righteous service, for otherwise you would surely never have willingly incurred such unenviable notoriety as has been yours over these casQo. Bat it is just here that we join issue. Does not your oonduct savor rather much of the doctrine that " the end justifies the means," a doctrine so vicious, so pregnant of evil, that its condemnation must be apparent to the most superficial mind? Has it never struck 3'ou that by going into these houses as you did, you acted a lie and incited and assisted the licensees to break the law, even although you may have experienced no difficulty in pro. curing the sale of the liquor you asked for ? True, it may be, that people are constantly doing the same thing, but this affords no excuse for you. In my opinion your conduct has been most reprehensible, and is certainly not the less so on account of the curious ad. mixture of religion and deceit. Believe me, no cause, however good, can possibly be advanced by conduct of this sort. If I thought otherwise, 1 should have but a poor opinion of the morality of the community.