Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1871.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 18, Issue 1110, 2 September 1871, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1871.

The Town of Wanganni has recently furnished an instance of the despotic vhj in which trustees can act in regard to public property committed to their care. Ever since the laying out and first .settlement of the town, a portion of suburban land has been sec apart and used for purposes of public recreation, such as faces, cricket, and rural BpoitK. Not content to let well alone, a section of the inhabitants contrived to get an Act of the Legislature; passed, providing for the managemant of the said reserve, and for this purpose vesting it in the hands of trustees. These gentlemen, with the view of raising funds for improving the ground for the purposes of horse-racing, have let the land on lea*e, and thus cut off the use of the reserve lVonj avkvy other purpose, eye*} including ride practice. The question has lecentlv been raised in the .Resident Magistrate's Court, and the decirtUJU of the Justices Ims been against the public, who are thus deprived of their privileges in respect to lite reserve. Iq another place w|? give an extract from the Wanganui Chronicle relative to the case, and justifying the magism the decision they have given. \Ve, however, aee grounds on which to (jifjfer from our con tern por?uy. r |'ho firgumeut y/hipij appears to have hud infjst veight wi|/l| the magistrates ffii~mn to rest upon the ption that

the reserve v\as a race-eourHe si in ply, but this is a view which cannot be maintained. The Wanganui Herald «how» that the Act vesting the reserve in trustees provides for ** both sports and races,' 1 and where it confers power of letting tho reserve on trustees it specially provides " that no such letting shall interfere with tho purposes for which the land shall be fet apart." The discretionary power given to tho trustees is simply that of regulating—"framing regulations applicable to races and sports,"—which is quite another thing from prohibiting them. This, in our view, is conclusive, and would, we think, be sufficient to reverse the decision of the Resident Magistrate, by the judgment of a higher Court, though it is scarcely probable that private in" dividual* will bo found sufficiently patriotic to risk their means in carrying on a suit of appeal. Meantime, the lessee objects to the use of the reserve except for a day or two in the year for the purpose of the annual races, and for any other purpose the inhabitants ure deprived of their aicustomed place of recreation. This case is not without its interest to Napier, bearing, as it does, on the late attempt to vest oar reserve of Olive Square in the hand;? of trustees.