SUPREME COURT.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume I, Issue 9, 30 June 1887, Page 2

SUPREME COURT.

The Supreme Court is at present holding its sittings in McFarlane’s Hall. If draughts, dust, and dirt are qualifications, the Hall is a pre-eminently fitted place for the Court to sit in.

Other towns have decently furnished Court-houses, and we see no reason why Gisborne should be found wanting in this particular. We have never had any Public Works money worth speaking abont expended here, although we have contributed for years to the revenue of the Colony. What the Judge and the juries think about the matter we don’t know, but what the general public think on the subject we do know.

Of all the draugnty, evil-smelling, filthy Courts of Justice we have ever met with, commend us to the Gisborne Supreme Court. The arrangements made for the convenience of jurors and witnesses are simply scandalous, and whoever may get in for the East Coast Electorate should lose no time in impressing up the Government the necessity of making more suitable and satisfactory provision for the comfort of the pnblic.

AN ACCOUNT OF HIS STEWARDSHIP. As it is now definitely known that Mr S. Locke, our present member, intends to stand again, the opinion is being freely expressed in town that he should give an account of his stewardship as early as possible. There is no need for the boundaries being declared for this.

The electors wish to hear from Mr Locke’s lips an account of his actions during the last three sessions, and he certainly owes them such an account. We trust that Mr Locke will soon be able to announce his intention of addressing the electors at a very early date

THE CROWN PROSECUTOR, As our contemporary the Herald has chosen, and in a most unbecoming manner, and not in accord, as we understand with the facts, to attempt to cast a slu; | (not for the first time) on thq rjown Solicitor here, we wish, ip jn te y e3t of this district, to Upon gdod authority, that bur readers should understand '.flat although His Honor the Chief Justice, on the evening the Jury were locked up, said that the law might have been put in force so as to relieve the inconvenience the gentlemen were put to, yet the Crown Solicitor had, in the opinion of the Chief Justice) exercised a wise discretion in the matter, The Jury Act seems io be permeated with mischief that requires to be remedied, and such appears to be the opinion of our Chief Judge of the Colony. The remarks of the Herald are, in our opinion, unjust to the Crown Prosecutor, as it appears he did use “ discretion," and no man can be compelled in such a capacity to please persons who have no idea of the case in question.

We are sure the Chief Justice felt and expressed it that the case was of such a character as would not be really beneficial to allow young children to undergo the examination again. It appears the children are well brought up, and it is most painful not only for Judge, Jury, Connsei, and onlookers, who are parents of children, but for the parents of the children themselves, that the case should be repeated.

We may tell our contemporary that it would not have been a " new trial." It would, had the Crown used its discretion, have been “ another trial" as though nothing had taken place, and, therefore, we are happy to say, in the words of the Chief Judge, “the Crown used a wise discretion,” and trust that Mr Nolan will not feel offended with the article of our friends down the street.

CHANGE IT BY ALL MEANS. “ A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” So it would, and Poverty Bay by some other name would smell a good deal sweeter.

Poverty Bay as a name to send outside, doesn’t smell at all, it merely stinks. Because old Captain Cook, a most worthy man by the way, and one, although we perfectly safe in libelling, we wouldn’t say one word against, called this outlet Poverty Bay solely because the Natives did not give him and his men plentiful tucker, is that a reason why we should go on trumpeting ourselves abroad as a poverty stricken community ? We’ve had just about enough of this wonderful cognomen, and we want to change it. Cr Townley says we ought to call the place Victoria Bay. The Harbor Board, sapient Solons that they are, agree to a change, and so did the Borough Council last night. In the opinion of many ratepayers, the Councillors would have been better employed in turning to, and having a working bee in clearing the mud off Gladstone Road, but that’s a side question. What shall we call it ? Lawyer’s Bay —well, we have enough of the men of law and to spare, but we needn’t “ herald ’’ misfortunes abroad too freely. How would Bankruptcy Bay do ? In that line also we can show a fair record, but still the name is ugly. Unlike Christchurch and Dunedin or Auckland we have not experienced the need of a soup kitchen yet, or we might call it Misery Bay. Joking apart, we must change the name. As Cr Whinray pathetically remarked on Tuesday evening, fancy a man showing a business card printed “ Poverty ” Bay. Wherever you go outside you always meet with the same derisive jeers at the name. In Heaven’s sake and that of our citrens let us change it. But Victoria Bay wouldn’t do There's Victoria the Colony, and Victoria in Vancouver’s Island, and Victoria the Capital of the Island of Hongkong, besides goodness only knows how many other Victorias scattered about here, there and everywhere. Who can suggest a name, a good, highsounding, yet sensible name ? We shall be glad to hear from our readers on the subject,

As for “ Poverty Bay,” that’s played out, except with our contemporary which is poverty by name and poverty by nature, especially in the amount of brains it exhibits in its production,

CONDEMNING MR GLADSTONE. By a telegram in another column it will be seen that Mr Gladstone's policy of Justice to Ireland has been condemned by 116 head fellows and professors of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, who have presented an address to the Marquis of Hartington, approving of Unionism and condemning Gladstone and Coercion.

Why this item of news should be cabled out to New Zealand we know not. As a rule, taken all round, there is no more pedantic unpractical ass in the world than a University professor, whose head is full of musty Latin and Greek, who lives an easy going life on a fat screw, and whose ideas of general politics are about as much worthy of reception as those of a Patagonian Chief on Sir Robert Stout. We believe in Home Rule, and, consequently in England’s truly grand old man, Mr Gladstone, and not all the blatant bluster of a thousand and sixteen " fellows and professors of Oxford and Cambridge ” can alter our belief.

£Owing to the despicable and degrading tactics adopted by the Times, a journal which faces all ways and panders to all parties to serve its own ends, the cause of freedom to Ireland has suffered much of late. Vile calumnies have been hurled at the head of Mr Parnell, the cause of buck shot and bloodthirstiness has been exalted, and that of freedom, patriotism, and justice maligned, aspersed, and libelled. What is the truckling toadyism of the 116 pedantic Tories of the Universities to avail against the results of the last five English elections, at which Gladstonians and Home Rule supporting Liberals were all elected ? Nothing at all 1

The voice of England’s sons, the voices of the vast toiling millions are being raised at Home in favour of the evicted tenants, the starved-out peasants of the Emerald Isle, and when ths next general elections come round we do not fear but that the much-

maligned statesman, Mr. Gladstone, will ' triumph over his adversaries of to-day, As for the professors anfl feN.iyfa oi Oxford and Cambrige, let th e m B tick to their Virgil ape, t)>bj r Casar, their Horace and their ‘xonc>phon, their jjatiy-fogging pedantries and th'eil own sphere, that of the schoolmaster pure and simple. Their opinion afediit Home Rule and Mr. Gladstone is worth no more than that of any ordinary men.