The Globe. TUESDAY, JULY 21, 1874.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 44, 21 July 1874, Page 2

The Globe. TUESDAY, JULY 21, 1874.

Tiik man who of nil others merits the contempt of his fellowmen, is o;;c who will lead another into wrong-doing if lie can, and then turn round for the Bake of gain, and inform on him. It seems that we are not without some Buch characters in this province. A Mr William Harvey, of Oxford, is vexed to the soul that there should be publicans who will supply a weary traveller on Sunday, with the cup that cheers and sometimes iuebriates. So determined i« he that-, if possibly rhis pernicious habit of drinking on the first day of the week shall be put down, that he will even do violence to his own feelings, and become a particeps criminis in order that he may obtain a conviction against a publican who would supply a traveller with liquor on that day. For this purpose Mr Harvey takes an acquaintance with, him to a public house in the country, and in response to the question as to whether they are travellers or not, he replies, " Yes." On which the landlord, having now no fear of a breach of the law before his eyes, supplies Mr Harvey with a glass of spirits, and his acquaintance with some beer, for which Mr Harvey is generous enough to pay, we suppose thinking that, in the event of a conviction, his in.ney would return to him with interest. Mr Harvey then leaves the house, and shortly afterwards the information is laid against the publican who supplied them with liquor. It was proved, in the course of the hearing before the Resident Magistrate at Kaiapoi, that the acquaintance whom Harvey took with him on the Sunday in question, was at the time residing within a reasonable distance of the public house; but the I£. M. very wisely determined that the publican could not know, but that the statement made by Harvey as to the pair of them being travellers, might be correct, as the second man was one of the numerous " birds of passage" to be found in this community. He therefore gave the defendant the benefit of the doubt, and the police, immediately placed Mr Harvey in tho position of defendant in the court, to answer to the charge of aiding aud abetting the publicau in his breach of the act. Of course, as the first charge had been dismissed, the magistrate could hardly do less than discharge Mr Harvey, which he did, with several observations as lo the position in which he hud placed him-

self--by Ma attempt at- acting as an amateur detective ; and we trust that the informer left the court a wiser and a sadder man. There has been an advertisement appearing for some time past, in which intelligent young men are required for the Canterbury police force., We are ignorant of Harvey's age, but if he feels that he is qualified lo join the police, he had better do so at once, and then he may possibly bo saved for the future from* all ill effects resulting from misguided zeal for the well being of the morals of his fellow colonists. He might be able to turn his talents for information to a legitimate use, and in timo be dignified by reporters as "an intelligent and active member of the force."