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Manawatu Times, Volume II, Issue 109, 26 October 1878, Page 2

We have repeatedly urged the necessity of the Resident Magistrate being located m Palmerston, and as each day passes the wisdom of such a course is made more apparent. During the last week a women named Cja&i M_kxqk vv awerted for

larceny of a cheque, and as of course the charge should be heard before a Police Magistrate, prisoner, constable, and witnesses were all necessitated to go to and from Marton, a distance of sixty miles. Of course prisoner, and constable travel free on the Government line, and all expenses incurred by the witnesses are recouped to them, so that the evil m their oases ends with the extra expor.se to which tho country is put. But there are other phases of the case whioh evince that an injustice is done by the course pursued. In the first place, armod as the police are with the full authority to subpoena all who can give evidence favorable to conviction, the accused is often placed at a great disadvantage. No matter how innocent of the charge they are compelled to pay their own witnesses, and if this be difficult when the ease is heard m the locale. of the crime, how much more harder is it to pay mileage for One or more witnesses. In the case mentioned above, the prisoner asserted that she could have disproved the charge, hut that she was unable to pay witnesses to travel to Marton ; and when committed for trial, she said that it was impossible for her to procure bail after being dragged away from where she was known. Of course we do not put the slightest faith m either statements of the aocused, stilt it serves to show that the course adopted is a most unjust one, beside putting the country to extra expense. Then, again, tho members of the legal profession m Palmerston have just cause for complaint, as handicapped with expense of travelling to and from Marton, with a much grater loss of time, it is possible counsel at Marton would be selected whose charge would be nothing beyond the usual professional fee. Were Palmerston an insignificant village, without Court-house or population, we could see the justice of the course hitherto pursued, but inasmuch as it numbers double the inhabitants of Marton, and is the most central portion of the Magistrate's Circuit, the manner m which it has been treated; ia absurd m the extreme.