MR. GUINNESS IN EXPLANATION.

Kumara Times, Issue 1104, 14 April 1880, Page 3

MR. GUINNESS IN EXPLANATION.

[to the editor.] Sir—As you were kind enough during my absence at Collingwood, Nelson, to publish a paragraph in the Ku.mara Times, reflecting upon my professional conduct, and the statements in such paragraph are, to use a mild expression, incorrect, I hope you will allow me to give my version of the facts :—ln the flrst pkvee you are mistaken in saying that I “ had been retained in several cases at Kumara ” on the date referred

to ; the fact being that I had only been retained iu one case, which had been adjourned from Greymouth, and set down for hearing on the Ist of April, 1880, at Kumara, for the convenience of the parties interested. Now, on the 25th March, 1880, the clay prior to my departure for Nelson, I made it my particular business to inquire of his Worship the President Magistrate whether he would hold a sitting of the Resident Magistrate's Court at Kumara on the Ist of April, ISBO, and he distinctly informed me he would not, as he had obtained leave of absence and intended to sail for Wellington immediately he had disposed of the case Regina v. Flowers, which was then pending in the Resident Magistrate's Court at Ahaura. Feeling, therefore, quite satisfied that the only case in which I was retained at Kumara could not be heard by two Justices of the Peace iu the absence of the Magistrate in charge of the district, as it was a case in the extended jurisdiction of the Court, but would, as is usual in such cases, be adjourned until the Magistrate's return, I considered I was perfectly justified in accepting a retainer in an important mining case at Collingwood, instead of remaining at Greymouth for the sole purpose of seeing whether his Worship the Resident Magistrate carried out his expressed intention of leaving for Wellington or not.— I am, &c, A. R. Guinness. Greymouth, 14th April, ISBO.