PUBLIC MEETING.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 52, 26 June 1862, Page 3

PUBLIC MEETING.

A numerously attended meeting was held lest evening at Munn’s Koyal Hotel (the use of the Council Chamber having been refused by the Superintendent), “ for an expression of opinion on the proceedings in the Civil Commissmner’s Court.” We have only time and space to give the. resolutions, -which were all unanimously car.ied. Mr. F. Sutton occupied the chair. Proposed by Mr. Buchanan, seconded by Mr. Lindsay,— “That this meeting believes the introduction of the Civil Commissioner’s Court (from which apparently all other Magistrates are excluded) into a European district, and that in a case in which both the parties concerned are of the British race, to be an illegal and arbitrary act, as well as utterly

distasteful to an English community.’ 1 Moved by Mr. Eittall, seconded by Mr. J. Herding,— “ That the decision given by the Civil Commissioner is in our opinion directly contrary to the weight of evidence produced by the Crqwn in support of the prosecution, and that it utterly ignores the reasonable, satisfactory, and full explanation afforded by the defendant," Moved by Mr. T. B. Harding, seconded by Mr. T. D. Smith,— “That this meeting, having regard to the first and second resolutions, considers the conduct of the gentleman filling the office of Civil Commissioner as worthy of the severest x'eprobation, and that a petition to the House of Representatives be prepared and tfken round for signature, praying for enquiry into the late extraordinary proceedings." Moved by Mr. J. Harding, seconded by Mr. E. Thompson,— “That a Committee, composed as follows, viz., Messrs. Lindsay, Sutton, Wood, Kelly, and Buchanan, be appointed to prepare the petition, and to obtain signatures thereto." Moved by Mr. T. B.' Harding, seconded by Mr. T. D. Smith,— “ That this meeting cannot permit the occasion to pass without expressing their strong disapprobation of the conduct of their Superintendent, Captain Carter, in refusing the use of the Council Chamber to the public when requested to allow it for the purposes of this meeting.”