A Clerk of the Court.

Manawatu Herald, 12 May 1894, Page 2

A Clerk of the Court.

■• sTtaf-V4!aei^ft'TW9ing J fi > i*Hwle'dttflifl a Mdgi?trates3iboQt.t'hag"'toatt^iv£ii aVwbject lesson by the proceedings of ,WfrolfZ' liable clerk as shown below in a paragraph taken from the Times : — " There is a police constable in a Southern. lovynjßhjase amour propre lately received a rudeehoo&'mrough the carelessness '— although, jiuf jgioious. people might say it looks lika a] wellplanned hoax— oil- a clerk in the? $fagis* trate's Court. The facts have lately been brought under the notice ol the' Minister of Justioe so that they may be relied on as strictly correct. At the Court in question a man was brought before three.Justjcea of the Peace and sentenced by them? to 14 days' imprisonment in the district jjftol for some offence against the lawi> fim due course the warrant of commitment was made out by the clerk, signed by the Justices, and handed over to the;.nnßuJ3]flecting constable, who marched off j^jittt^ft prisoner. When the pair "c^^ntonißjJ the gaoler the latter official tj)0 i k|h'el'spilble to cast his eye over the, warrant; ra&f ound to his amazertieilt' .that at direeiedl him, with due formality of offloiaj;la36uage, to receive into his custody, 'to* imprison and to keep to hard labonr for tfie apace of 14 days, not the prisoner, bat thp^inflff ending constable. Being a - level-heftded man he did not obey the mandate; But a. fresh , warrant of course had to ba made out by * the clerk and signed by the Justices, y no equally, of course,- brought 'the/ clfirK^ to book, and reported the affair to thfe Stipendiary Magistrate. The clerk explained that the insertion of the constable's name instead of the prisoner's was a pure inadvertence, and received the rebuke- of*the Magistrate with becoming humility/ \Still the papers had to go on to the Minister, and as no one has suffered, and clerk's explanation of the misadventure Is 4 doubtless correct, there the matter Will'rksti i7t