"THE MAN IN THE STREET."

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 155, 23 February 1872, Page 3

"THE MAN IN THE STREET."

When I concluded my last I promised to appear again, and as the great, T mean the celebrate 1, clown Grimaldij and many other clowns after him, were in the habit, when coming on the of exclaiming " Slap, bang ! Here we are again !" Jilyen. so, say I Wal' (as the Wizard lately in our :;iidst, was extremely fond of ejaculating)—wal' 1 since ray last communication I have been looking about for sights upon which to comment for the edification of your readers. Wal' small as Naseby is, there are in it to be seen many, and, at the same time, extraordinary sights—sights seldom to be met with elsewhere, or if they are to met with with they have not come within my sight. "The first sight to which I desire to draw.public attention is the Hospital - sorry site indeed. Why, the gentlemen, constituting the Hospital Committee shou!d have made such a sight of themselves by selecting such a site for such an institution, fairly puzzles my weak head and distracts my weary brain. Why, if the whole locality within an available distance were gone over, 1 doubt if a more unfit site could have been selected. Qui bono, say I. Is it on the score of accessiblity and salubrity? then, [ say, that in neither respects is the site a fitting or a proper one, or one at all suitable for the purposes of such an institution—the approach being bad, and the site itself being one upon which Sol in the winter season seldom, and then only late in the day, ever deigns to smile;or shine. Is it on the score of economy? then, I say that a penny-wise and pound-foolish policy has been pursued, and t that greater cost w»ll be incurred in making this unsightly site sightly than would have purchased a site really and admirably adapted for hospital purposes. One visit to the site will, I feel sure, induce the public. to coincide in my view in this matter. But if the site be bad, as I assert it is, what shall I say of the paltry, gingerbread, though no doubt sightly, building, which is hereafter to glory in the name of the Mount Ida District Hospitall. What is but a tinsel toy, built of the most weak and fancy materials—a thing of a day or a year, or perhaps a little longer period, but having nothing suggestive either of permanency or durahility about it. I do not wish to prejudice the public mind, though I feel it part of.my selfimposed duty to call attention to. the matter. The Hospital Committee may, and no doubt does, surprise men of intelligence among them, but to my mind one and all of them have, by the approval of the design.and the selection of a site for the hospital, proved themselves a pack of incapables, and should resign their offices into other more practical and more able hands. Time, the great solver of all questions, whether for aye or for nay, is the test by which the Committee and their works will be judged, and to time,, therefore, I leave the issue.

.Another sight, and a sight which I consider to/be of a very-important and serious nature, came under my notice a few days since, and one which, as it affects public interests, public and public, decorum, I will, as concisely as possible, and in my humble manner, attempt to portray. On Saturday and Monday last, waler being; scarce,'or rather, unobtainable, T. for t'\e sake >f passing an idle hour, and perhaps obtaining a few hints and wrinkles- with regard to mining and other laws, entered the Court House. On the Bench

sat your respected and very properly, respected M igisttate and Warden '■— with a countenance alwaysbenign, never severe, at the same time expressive of deep, thought, and suggestive of great ability. Below him sat his clerk, grave as—what shall I say ? a chu~eh mouse ? No ; the term grave is misapplied, and I recall it. Ighou'd have said solemn as the grave. * At the table below sat four gentlemen .whom L. in m\ blissful iguorance mistook for limbs of the law. Tiree of, these were comparatively s elderly, !_ bemg' 'well, stricken in years, w'jile the fourth was at most in ".is e rliVst manhood. Not b« j injc much addicted to law,: I "watched the proceedings not onlv liafrowly, but with interest, taking mites' in.' my po ket-book in order to refresh my memory" should it at any time fail me. Well, instead of the solemnity which I had expected to .ave seen exercised, the whole affair appeared to me!to be a mockery, more resemoling a Punch and. Judy- show than w iat I expected tohave found in a Court of" Justice —all the audience appearing to' enjoy'" the' joke, or the fun, or the law, or'the-.jus-,, tice, or whatever you like to call"it. Upon one of the elderly, gentlemen, whom I afterwards discovered to be only an agent, rising and stating that' he appeared for the :>laihtiff, he jWas met by the young gentleman,* who said, in effect, " You can't pleal.' You're not a solicitor. I am. Wnere's your license ?" or ticket, or whatever they choose to call the document. Upon this, dor.invents pro and co.n were produced, the Court eventu illy ruling that the young man was .right and the old one vvpon: p . ..The old gent, nothing d muted, \Veut to the side"of his client and act *d \s his adviser, telling him w > »*■ to say \nd w!iat to do in a voice sufH-ienilv lotid to be beard through; out-the C.»urt, to the no smalL amuse* ment of the bystar.ders. Not only this, but when the police were attemptin to rit iiu v conviction against tie sa ; I old j"n'l'!nin'i? client, the said old gent cooly rose and. -i* an amicus cvrfg t . pointed out w ietv both t le police and the Court were in error, and carried his point. Agiin, on Monlay, in the Warden's Court, all persons present as. before. Upon the case being called, one old gent said that he appeared for one side, and another old gent that he appeared on the other side. The said young gent being, however,' present, as on Saturday, neither of the said old g^n r s were, ally wed speak to the Court, but, sitting by the side of theirrespective «dients, promoted them asto*, , th"ir questions and their replies, ta the n-> small,amusement of the'people i'i Court, and, at the same time, to tlie 1 no little . .mystificaHon alike. o£~,the 'clients and the-Court—the questions being frequently misunderstood, and tie replies consequently jiot unfre- ' qucntly ridiculous Up/n making inquiry into, this unu-»utl practice in the Naseby Court, 1 was told that the old fellows were only agents (or recognised as such), but that the young fellow was a full-blown barrister and solicitor of of the Supreme Court, hearing " all his blushing honors fresh upon'him," and that, - therefore, unless engaged himself in a suit, no agent could'be*'allowed, underlie rules of practice and 1 procedure in the Warden's Court, .to ,open his lips. -I pass no opinion -upon the merits of the question. I simply record what I saw, and the impression-. which it conveyed to my'mind—rnainelyv. the perversion of a Court of .Justice into a Punch and Judy Show. One word to Mr. iiobinson and I have done-If-it be "his desire to maintain the 'solemnity of his Court, and put an end tq.iscenes such as occurred on Saturday :and, Monday last,- ;he will, if: it be his. duty to exclude agents from- pleading in the presence of -a solicitor, prevent i;he recurrence of exhibitions such as occurred in lis Court on. the days to which I have referrea. "-■ '

The news from the South Africa* dia.mQUjgl,. fieldsis that the finds are still ; j. £ diamond ,of f 12^., carat* (hm Seen. unearthecL/at au4 it is a /daily iobciurrence to see precious gems of from 20 to 90 carats, j Towns are.risiug ? up , witb ; euprising .rapidity, and; there reports. of fypjrc Jing' alley billiard hotels, Teptaurants, ind_ stores without end. ' t j