The Manawatu Standard (PUBLISHED DAILY.) Suivant la verite. THURSDAY, AUGUST 23, 1883. JUDICIAL PECULIARITIES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume 4, Issue 223, 23 August 1883, Page 2

Manawatu Standard (PUBLISHED DAILY.) Suivant la verite. THURSDAY, AUGUST 23, 1883. JUDICIAL PECULIARITIES.

Me Edwabd Hardoa&tle, Resident Magistrate of Wellington, has achieved a certain amount of n- toriety ior his peculiar rulings from the bench. At one time it is on the side of leniency towards -the accused, and at another, extreme rigour. He is one of those austere men, 'yip one might imagine had never # smiled since his schooldays. Almost every week tb.B Wellington Press have occasion to find fault with his decisions,e.->pecia)ly m criminal cases, his rulings being normally distinguished principally by the feature of eccentricity* ,A lew days ago a young xiri was brought before him on a charge of vagraucy, h«r parents having lost all control over her, and she having commenced a life of infamy, having been anestea at a brothel. The accused pleaded guilty, and her parents gut'"' r^h/e? -,n • to« iru ».y -h* t;. her .ailiugs.. lv i'u< £iCo oi tuis, the Magistrate dismissed the case on the extraordinary grounds that! it had not b en proved that she had ■ committed any od^nce against the public, A Wellington paper points oat that according to "The Vagrancy Act,! 1866," the accused was dearly liable topunishment. But the tender-hearted K.M., who once before sent a poor Kid to herd with criminals for au jndi-fr* tion, fiii'.is an irn-gi>. ■»• y 1 '»p- .i»i»> u> r xho accusHu m 'hi: ca-e, au'i rl'/'U^ :ht uutj.tuual- t.o ii x • iiie oi ?Uw. Another case opmts onder reynj*. a

rating Frenchwoman is accused of I tealing an article of apparel from a shop n Wellington, the date on or about which it wa3 "taken being sworn to bj the prosecutor. A witness for the defence deposed that he had seeu thi accused wearing the mantle m Christ church some six weeks ago, or a monUi at least before the date of its allege larceny. He identified the article by ■ tear, which he had seen done, and whiut the accused had mended m his presence. The accused's counsel applied for a remand to procure further exculpatory evidence of a similar character, but Mr Habdcastle refused to do so, stating that counsel had closed his case, and sentenced the acoused to a month'b imprisonment with hard labour I An R.M. sits, or should sit, as judge and jury, and who will venture to affirm that a jury would have convicted m the face of such evidence for the defence. It seems highly probable that the acoused has been the victim of an injustice, through Mr Habdoastlb's peculiarity of temperament and lack of judicial discrimination. All things considered, the public may congratulate themselves that our Resident Magistrates have quite as much power vested m them as it is safe to entrust them with. .