The Chronicle LEVIN: SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7. 1916. MAGISTRATE-MADE PRECEDENTS

Horowhenua Chronicle, 7 October 1916, Page 2

The Chronicle LEVIN: SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7. 1916. MAGISTRATE-MADE PRECEDENTS

A letter from 'Councillor Dempfcey, published in yesterday's Chronicle, set out concisely the grounds upon which lie and other councillors are moving to hare the street lamps of Levin removed from the centre of Oxford .street to the sides. Councillor Denvpsey tells tlio fact that Masterton Borough Council has been mulcted in about £100 because of an accident to a motor cycle that occurred at the base of a lamp centrally situated in a 'Masterton street. The local Stipendiary Magistrate ruled that the borough council had no legal right to perpetuate an obstruction in a public street, although it* had the power to put up one for temporary purposes. Yet of necessity there won ldi be -a greater element of dAnijor in an obstruction to which people wore unaccustomed. The magistrate's decision, while unchallenged in high courts, will run in Masterton S.M. district, but we doubt if it will find an echo outside. The judgment of a Stipendiary Magistrate extends no farther tlinn bis district; in fact there can be.found S.M. .judgment precedents that arc diametrically opposite, on almost all matters. Whether the "street lamp precedent" comes under this category wo cannot say; but as to the general rule we are certain. If the Masterton Borough Council was content to pay £100 and let so important a matter rest, instead of appealing to the Supreme Court, the judgments of which are co-ordinated, then Masterton Borough Council failed in its duty. The rights of the community against the individual should have been properly tested. Such a matter as this comes within, the purview of the Municipal Association, and it would be well if the Levin Borough Council approachcdi that association with a request for legal opinion on this subject from its solicitor. There can be no doubt that from the viewpoint of effectiveness the public lights of a main thoroughfare as wide as Oxford-street should be in the centre of the roadway, and it .-eems to us than any driver of a vehicle wbo cannot avoid collision with a concrete base would be equally liable to carry away a corner lamp-post on occasion. In anv event, the question. Yen. or Xen, should be established in the judgment of a Supreme Court judge, to tlio end that a more-binding decision would be on record for the guidance of municipalities. Levin will be peculiarly ill-

suited if tho present ruling abides as binding, for if the street Jambs are a? cause of likely lose so too are the street trees. Tlie general issue is of such moment to all mmiiclalities that a case should be stated an behalf of tho municipalities by the iMu-nieipal Association, and the Supreme Court asked to give a declaratory judgment on it.