The Nelson Evening Mail. SATURDAY, JULY 16, 1870.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 166, 16 July 1870, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. SATURDAY, JULY 16, 1870.

Loud complaints reach our ears from all sides with regard to 'the adjournment at so short a notice of the sittings ef the Supreme Court, whereby a vast amount of private inconvenience is caused as well as a considerable drain on the public purse, for theTe are witnesses from the West Coast and the neighboring province of Marlborouwh whose expenses will have to be ptid during their stay in Nelson, and it will soou be found that the sum of £80, placed on the Estimates for Supreme Court witnesses will have to T>e doubled ox 1 trebled for this one session only. In the first place it seems to have beeu an act of thoughtlessness on the part of the General Government to appoint a day for the opening of the Court in Nelson so close to that fixed for the Court of Appeal in Wellington, as by a little exercise of ordinary foresight it would have been seen that the chances were greatly in favor of the sittiugs | of the lalter Court lasting beyond I the fortnight that was to intervene between its opening day and that of the Nelson sittings, but even after this error had been committed it was not altogether too late | to remedy it, for it must have known a i week ago whether there was any probability of the Judge being able to leave Wellington iv time to keep his appointment in Nelson, and if there was any likelihoood of his being detained beyond that date, it surely was the duty of the proper authorities to -make it kuown to the Registrar in order L that he might acquaint the witnesses, counsel, and ! other parlies concerned that their attend- J ance would not be required fora fortnight i after the date for which 'they were summoned. As it is, the expense entailed upon the Proviuce will be enormous, and money that would otherwise have been devoted to useful purposes will have to be completely, thrown away, simply because those whose duty it was to make the necessary arrangements have been guilty of culpable neglect. If there is one institution which should above all others be characterised by regularity in its proceedings, it is the Supreme Court, by which the movements of so many per- ' sons are regulated that some little attentioa should be paid to their convenience, and .they should not be liable to be informed on their arrival here from a distance, that their cervices will not be required for some daj's, when their needless journey could have been prevented by a little forethought. In the present instance the convenience of private individuals, and the interests of the public purse appear to have been most completely ignored, and we cannot wonder at the feeling of dissatisfaction that is openly expressed on all sides.