NEW ZEALAND.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2235, 1 June 1881, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND.

fFBBSS ASSOCIATION TBLKGRAM.] AUCKLAND, May 31. A Fortunate Escape* Miss Annie Carline, the victim of the Kiverhead stabbing case, has been discharged from the Hospital completely recovered. Advance New ZealandA Co-operative Society, under the title of the New Zealand Supply Association, has been floated, with a capital of £20,000, in £1 shares. | At the Cost of Depositors. | The trustees of the Auckland Savings Bank intend to erect a handsome structure on the present site. Charitable. An entertainment was held on the Te Anau last night on the passage by the Juvenile Pinafore Troupe, in aid of the Tararua fund. £lO was obtained. Work for ConvictsCaptain Hume has been inspecting Mount Eden gaol. It is proposed to commence ereoting stone prisons instead of the wooden quarters at present in use, doing a section each year. Ecclesiastical. A new Catholic Church is building at Newton, at a cost of £3340. Native Interference. It is reported at Cambridge from Kihikih 1 that Mr Boss' cattle were driven across the Punui Biver last night, and all the Europeans ordered off the land. At the south confiscation boundary several ahooting parties were turned back by the Natives. The principal chiefs of the Ngatimaniapoto tribe, including Wanga, Bewi, Tuake and Kapa have been ordered to go into the interior. Bewi has been ordered by Tawhaio to return the Crown grant received from the Government for his new house and allotment at Kibikihi, to receive no more pensions from the Government, and to pay for all fenoing and grass seed sown by Europeans on his land. There are some threats amongst the Natives of driving in Mr Tole's cattle from Ngamoko. WELLINGTON, May 31. Vital Statistics. During the month 89 births and 29 deaths were registered, and 25 marriage certificates were issued. High Interest. The "Post" to-night states that the College governors have borrowed £SOO at 8 per cent, from Mr McKay, who was reoently appointed Principal of the College, and that the money will be expended in making the necessary repairs to the institution. A Convention. Delegates from the county councils in various parts of the colony meet here tomorrow to consider several questions relating to the working of local governing bodies. TIMABU, May 31. Presentation. Mr W. Beswick, late Boting chief postmaster here, was presented to-day, on the eve of his departure for Westport, with a purse of fifty sovereigns, as a mark of esteem on the part of the citizens. DUNEDIN, May 31. Lucky. Walter Bice, whose conviotion for embezzlement was quashed by the Appeal Court, was discharged from gaol to-day. The Tararua Enquiry. Mr Simpson, Captain Thompson, and Captain McGowan have been considering the evidence today with regard to the Tararua, and it is expected that their decision will be given to-morrow. EncouragingThe shares for allotment in the Waitahuna Copper Company were]more than fully applied for. Eailway Extension. The tender of Mr John Stuart, Dunedin, for two and three quarter miles of tho Ashburton railway extension, has been accepted. The amount is £1842. Outspoken. Mr Oliver authorises the statement that, as far as he knows, the Government do not intend to delay carrying out the alterations in connection with tho projected new railway station. A Candidate for Punishment. L The prisoner Boss, who escaped yesterday, I was brought back to gaol about eight o'clock , to-night. 1 INVBRCAEGILL, May 31. The Tararua Disaster. I The bodies of two males came ashore at i Otara on Saturday. One of tho bodies was • that of a man about sft IHd, of medium build, . his clothing consisted of light tweed trousers, i woollen drawers, lace up boots without nails, 5 and recently half soled. There was no proi perty or papers found on him. The other was that of a man of sft 9in, and of rather stout build. It was entirely nude. Up to the present time seventy-one bodies in all have been recovered.

. JUSTICES' JUSTICE. Justices' justice is an admirable thing, especially when it is not paid for ; but aooording to the old story it is possible to have too muoh of a good thing, and it would appear to be sometimes possible to have too muoh oven of justices' justice. We scaroaly know why it should be so. Both by the theory and practice of the constitution it is only the simplest cases with whioh Magistrates have to deal, and the principle aocording to which they have to deal with them is one we should have thought could not easily be misunderstood. In civil matters they have simply to uphold the good faith of contracts and assess reasonable damages for the infliction of wrongs. In criminal matters they have to administer what is well-known law in the best manner for the publio protection. We will not trouble our readers in the present article with illustrations of the civil business in the Magistrate's Court, but we will just ask their attention to what occurred only two days back in the Police Court. The case was one of discharging firearms. And wo may remind our readers that it is not the first case of the kind which has occurred here. It is not so many months since an unfortunate man lost his life under circumstances closely analogous to those which we are about to detail. A boy about fourteen was brought up for discharging firearms. A witness gave evidence that he was passing down Lower High street when he heard a report, a bullet whizzed past him and struck an iron fence close by. On looking round the accused was on the other side of a gorse fence, and at once admitted having fired the shot. The Bench gave the boy a severe lecture, ordered him to pay the oosts of the summons and discharged him. Now we really rnußt ask—What do those gentlemen who periodically take their seats on the Bench really suppose that they sit there for? It seams to be in accordance with their notions that a boy may lire a bullet into a crowded street in Christchurcb, and being lucky enough to hit nobody, he is to be let off with the payment of a few shillings fine. It is quite true that the prosecutor begged that he might be dealt with leniently —a request very creditable, no doubt, to the motives and good feeling of the prosecutor. But the prosecutor was not the judge of what was necessary for the publio protection. That duty fell upon the Magistrates, and that duty it never seems to have occurred to them to give any attention to. If-they had been sitting there, not for the protection of the publio, but for the protection of, larrikinism, we oan conceive no judgment better adapted to the oiroumstanoes than that which they felt it their duty to give. We are not accusing the lad of any outrageous crime. We do not suppose he intended to kill anybody. He was firing, it appears, at a mark. But young fools may be quite as dangerous to the publio safety as criminals of a more decided type; and as young fools are quite as common as criminals of that charaoter, the publio needs to be equally protected against their mis-doings. We should not refer to this if it were an isolated case, but it really does seem as if of late the efforts of the Bench had been steadily directed to the protection and promotion of a spirit of i larrikinism in the younger ranks of the community. But while saying this, we not wish to be understood as asserting that the Bench never under any circumstances rises to a sense of its responsibilities. The manner, for example, in whioh it dealt with the case of cruelly ill-using a horse the other day, by i Bending the offender to prison for two months without the option of a fine, proved that it oan now and then aot judiciously. But one swallow does not make a summer, and an occasional instance of the exercise by the Benoh of practical common sense does not make up for the numerous instances on its part of exactly the opposite characteristic