The Globe. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1876.

Globe, Volume VII, Issue 718, 7 October 1876, Page 2

The Globe. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1876.

A warning to cortaia officials, which should act with salutary effects in some quarters, came out of the notorious case of perjury, heard iu the Supreme Court during the week. A man named Evans was convicted—to quote the judge’s words on the clearest evidence possible, of having been guilty of the offence in question. A case of greater wickedness, he said, had never come before him, or one manifesting a more dangerous tendency to injure society at large, and it was deserving of the heaviest punishment allowed by the law. The culprit, however seems to stand a very good chance of escaping punishment altogether,

through some gross blunder on the part of a Resident Magistrate’s clerk. The official in question, through carelessness, or perhaps incompetency, filled up the usual form of criminal information, which originally gave rise to the present proceedings, in so incomplete a form, as to nullify the legality of the document. Technically, he failed to enter in the information the reputed ownership of the property stated to have been stolen ; an all-important part of the document, and one that the merest tyro in these matters should recollect, strange to say, neither the police, nor the two magistrates before whom the case was investigated at the outset, noticed this remarkable flaw, which would naturally lead to the presumption that, in the district where those preliminary proceedings occurred, things are perhaps done in too lax a manner. As Mr, Joynt put it to the Judge, no magistrate had the right of hearing a case of larceny, such as the one alluded to, where the information failed to recite who owned the property alleged to have been stolen. Mr. Justice Johnston admitted the objection as a weighty one, and reserved the point for the decision of the Court of Appeal. The result of all this may probably be, that after the great expense to which the country has been put, besides the trouble and loss of time incurred by all parties concerned, the verdict of the jury will be upset, and the prisoner discharged. Had the ends of justice been defeated, as is unfortunately too often the ease, through some exceptional laches of an official nature, there might be less regret at the untoward result; but here we have an instance wherein certain parties appear to have ignored the very A.B.C. of the professional knowledge they should possess. And we agree with the Judge, that, if the prisoner should escape the penalty he so richly deserves, the fact of its being caused by a technical mistake such as the one referred to, would indeed be deplorable. Besides the case of Evans being a very bad one, it is of considerable difficulty to sheet home offences of the kind. Perjury is a crime but too frequently committed, and one not easily proved. Wh believe that the experience of stipendiary magistrates is that it is committed with frequency, especially when matters of little importance are at issue. Owing to the well known legal and other difficulties surrounding the prosecution of this offence, judicial officers generally shrink from putting the law in motion, unless there be some special evidence, both in weight and quantity of a clearly reliable nature. A conviction such as the one recorded this session, is likely to produce valuable results, even if —as WO anticipate—the culprit bo allowed to escape soot free.

“ When Rome was burning, Nero played the fiddle.” The Assembly has now been more than a quarter of a year sitting, and, although of late the incubation process has brought forth something tangible in the shape of hastily conceived statutes, there seems plenty of time with hon members, for fun and merriment. The days of fancy-dress balls having passed away together with the Vogel regime, talking against time was resorted to, but was soon found a tedious enjoyment. The main business of the session—for some hon gentlemen at least —viz : providing their patriotic selves with suitable supplies of war in the shape of free-passes and increased honorarium, was next discussed and satisfactorily dealt with. But some new mode of relaxation had to be invented, when parliamentary brains proved as fertile as usual. When this most serious measure of the day, the « Counties Bill,” was being mangled through the machinery of committee I the House, then evidently ip. annAnmn.good humor, . ~ sav or jocularities, wbic.* y * i* parties may not be appreciated jn. most closely concerned, i.e., . habitants of a certain tract of country south of Dunedin. Purely out of fun, and in view of drawing out the wellknown Government Whip, Mr. Vincent Pyke, an Otago member moved that the Molyneux County be rechristened the “ St. Vincent” County. xl.nd amendment was mischievously added that the “ St.” be struck out; then a second, that the county in question be named the “ Vincent “ Pyke” County. Out of the laughter and natural confusion which temporarily followed, came out, to the utter astonishment doubtless, of the House, the fact that the first amendment had been carried, and that, now and for ever, as fast as a legal marriage-knot could tie it, the Molyneux district had become identified with the name of “ one of the moat remarkable men ” of Otago. Will the Molyneux people relish the joke ? Prom all accounts they are very unlikely to appreciate it keenly. A marvellous record, indeed, of bow one of the new Constitutional bantlings of 1870 first say daylight!