LORD MAYOR IN HIS COURT.

Hokitika Guardian, 14 February 1927, Page 1

LORD MAYOR IN HIS COURT.

LONDON, November 11

Sir Rowland Blades, M.P., the . new Lord Mayor of London, is leading the strenuous life. Following the banquet at the Guildhall on Tuesday night came his opening of the sessions at the Old Bailey yesterday morning, succeeded by his appearance on the Pencil at the -Mansion House.

Tllic Lord Mayor, whoever tie may be, is no ordinary magistrate, just as tho Mansion House is no ordinary police court. There is a glimpse ol' mediteval splendour as well as civic pride in the ritual and atmosphere of the Mansion House Police Court—a dignified chamber decorated in white and green, a place of old-time rites and privileges. Resplendent in scarlet and sable, wearing His gold chain of office, and heralded by the solemn announcement,

“The flight Honourable, the Lord Mayor,” lie takes ibis scat under the sheathed Sword of Justice, and on his right, perched on a high stool, sits the assistant clerk. On his left stands the gaoler, an impressive figure in dark blue with scarlet collar and cuffs, while in attendance is the City Marshal, a handsome and gallant officer who every few minutes brings sheaves of documents for the Lord Mayor to sign. Any spare time granted to a Lord Mayor is spent in signing documents.

Very impressive was the dignity and efficiency of the Lord payor’s Court, but I was chiefly concerned with the personality of tho gaoler. lie is an old soldier on whom the suns of Egypt and India have left tmeir mark. On many a barrack square must those dark, compelling eyes and that powerful physique have struck terror into raw recruits, and even now, when his fighting days are o’er, he handles offenders with the skill learned in dealing with human nature among the soldiers of the Queen.

flowing to the Lady Mayoress, the chi inning girl twins, and his young son and younger daughter, Sir Rowland Blades paid generous tribute to the admirable behaviour of the record crowd that enjoyed the Lord Mayor’s Show, and then, when his family had departed, lie dealt with the cases of the day.

Tho charge list was light, and the Lord Mayor, acting according to tradition, was lenient on this, his first appearance as chief magistrate. ******

A boy of 17 who bad made the painful discovery that port wine was not a temperance drink was let off on the payment of ss—without a lecture.

Burdened with words, another youth who. although only 20, is married and separated from his vife and child, pleaded guilty to having stolen a dictionary from a public reading-room. He had already been bound over for stealing books at Aldershot, and when arrested he showed a detective 30 other books which he admitted having stolen. Providing a library by larceny to have been the besetting sin of this youth, who, after being discharged from the army for not being amenable to discipline, has been a porter, a salesman, and a wireless operator, when obviously his real iob was that of a librarian.

Fortunate in the day of his trial, he escaped with four weeks’ imprisonment.

For the next hour the Lord Mayor was busy signing documents and discharging owners of motor-ears summoned for slight offences agafnst traffic regulations. It was a day on which justice was tempered with leniency.