The Lyttelton Times.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VII, Issue 440, 21 January 1857, Page 7

The Lyttelton Times.

C -1 Wednesday, January 21s£. At the Liverpool dinner referred to in our last issue, one speaker announced that it " had been his happiness, when present as a Grand Juror at Wellington, to see the High Sheriff present the Judge three times with a pair of white gloves-" From which fact and his seventeen years' residence he leaves his hearers to imagine unheard of wonders of the morality of the Wellington Colonists. If from such facts is left such room for inference and deduction, what may we not believe of the ,virtues and morality of our own population ? For whereas it has been the happiness of Wellington three times to. offer to its resident Judge the aforesaid emblems (typical to the judicial mind of purity and innocence) it has been our ' happiness' only to have seen his Honor in six years exactly as many times as he has received white gloves. While the," High Sheriff'— so far from ever having had the gratification of beholding him-—:we have never till^now even so much as heard named ; a sure proof, following qn the'same train of reasoning which evidently elicited the cheers of the Liverpool dinner eaters, that this high official is in nq way needed here. Such, judging from the result of their last meeting, we may presume is also the opinion of the General Assembly and Government.

How long Canterbury's high morals will preserve to us the existing1 enjoyment of a happy rarity of Supreme Court sittings is beyond our ken. But' we are surely entitled to reap our reward in the punctual and more frequent concession' of the same privilege and opportunity of making such desirable presentations as for seventeen years past Wellington has been accustomM to witness. Had the opportunities 011 been afforded us, who indeed can say thut Aye -toe might not have presented over three, nayour six pairs of white gloves, and had too our "great fact"in morality to display ;to a wondering British Public. Seriously, however, it is known almost for a certainty that,until Mr. Sewell has reached England and provided another Judge, there will be very little seen again of the Supreme Court in this province. In Otago no session is ever now held. At Nelson the sittings are few. Now it seems to us that, in allowing the arrangements of past years to he continued, notwithstanding the rapidly pro wing wealth and population of Middle Island Provinces, the General Assembly has very grossly neglected their wants and their rights. Leaving out of viewtheinfrequencyamong »s of crimes of the higher class (so to speak), there is nevertheless constant recurrence to

the civil side of the Supreme Court among a community who are possessed of much real and personal property. And this, not attributable to a mere litigious spirit, but to the misconceptions and misunderstandings to which the incompleteness of contracts in the haste of business and in the multitude of transactions will always give rise. Again, where access car: be had to a resident Judge, it is remarkable how the business of litigation.is forwarded and its expence diminished, while often the necessity for proceeding with a case to a jury is obviated altogether. - Some of the most important functions of a Judge are fulfilled while sitting in what is termed "in • chambers" ; it is there that business is rapidly advanced. Nor is \t solely at its open sittings that the Supreme Court assists - civil business. The mere knowledge that ,his opponent can at once i take his cause before it for trial often operates to bring an unreasonable disputant to a fair and immediate settlement. Thus, in commercial affairs especially, boldness is imparted to the transactions of an able speculator, and the capitalist freely employs his money to the advantage of many around him, confident that justice can at any moment be called to his aid.

The question of obtaining a resident Judge for the Middle Island is one which intimately concerns the progress of this Province especially, and qF none more than its men of business. We sincerely trust that the Provincial Council at their corning meeting will again urge on' the General Government the right of the Province tq have cheap and ready access to the supreme tribunals, and that our southern members will not allow the next General Assembly to break up without compelling a proper attention to so serious an evil as we are now subjected to; for, whatever may be asserted by gentlemen who live, in the north, we are bold to maintain that, wh^n British . subjects may linger in gaol for month aiter month without trial, and when the cost of instituting a suit is such as it now is, with a supreme court lesident only at Wellington, neither " life nor property" can be said to be " secure" at Canterbury.