Our Member.

Kawhia Settler and Raglan Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 229, 6 October 1905, Page 2

Our Member.

DOINGS AT WELLINGTON. In the House of Representatives a lew weeks ago, Mr Lang (Waikato) said that he wished to speak,“but before doing so he must raise his protest against the very short time that was allowed for members debating the answers they had received to question on the Order Paper. They had this afternoon a very striking illustration of the’grievanca to which he had al luded in the fact that only twenty Bve minutes were allowed to members to deal with forty-six important questions on the O.dur Paper. Ths pro b.tbility was that st least twenty-fivr members were disappointed with th answers they hed received, and ysi only twenty ft ye minutes in all wen available in which to bring their grievances before the House. The question that be bad risen to epeak about was one that he had put to che Min .ister of Justice, and was as folio -vb: — ”If he will appoint more Jnstice” of the Peace in Kawhia County. [Note. —The inhabitants of the county have been put to much inconvenience, loss of time, and expengi ou ocojuo: of the scarcity of Justicei of th* Peace in this dis rict. lam informed that in one instance a man was banting three days for a J.P.] ” The reply which be received wa« : “An additional Justice of the Peace, who resides at Kawhia, w-is appointed quite recmtly.” Ha might say th> the gentleman who had been anoointed was he believed, a very axoelImt m n for the poaitio n, and he c m gtatotated tha Miniver nnjhe a?poi >tment, and ventured to say is. word give entire satisfaction; but he Wanted to print out that one Justice of r he Peace for Kawbia was not sufficient. This gentleman was occasion ally aw?.y from town, and then th*, people were t left without tbf services if any J Ulrica of tha Peace a all He did not awk that Justices of the Peace should ba appointed for the town* of Kawhia only, but for the district of Kiwhia tho. Tbara was a harbour khe _ e, and the people livin round the place required the services of Jus icet of the Paace. Beiders sometime’lost twior three days in going to Kawnia to get a Junies of the Peace, as communication was bv means of nil launches, which did no run regularly, but were dependent on the tide. The journey could cot hdone, there and back, in less than three days, unless a spacial launch was engaged. There wag a cnse in Kawhia where two men were arrested by the constable for fighting, and a special steam launeh hsd to be obtained to get theJJustua of the Peace, who li’. ed in one of the back settlements, io deal with the case. It taok three days, and th* expense was three times the amount of the fine inflicted. Not very long ago, six months passed in which there was not a single Justice of the Peace within the Town of Kawhia, with the exception of one week. Tne appointment now mads would relieve the situation as far as the Town of Kawhia was concerned, but not the case of the people in the back blocks, who would still have to go to Kawhia to get the services of a Justice of the Peace. If the Government would appoint Justices of the Peace in the various back block settlements it would be a great convenience to those people who wanted signatures witnessed, and they would be saved a large amount of trouble and expanse, as at present they had to go long distances ovbr bad roads in order to get the services of a Justice of the Peace.