JUSTICES OF THE PEACE ON POLICEMEN'S DUTIES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 67, 18 March 1872, Page 2

JUSTICES OF THE PEACE ON POLICEMEN'S DUTIES.

To the Editor of the Nelson Evening Mail Sir — It is a common saying that, " when the police are required they are never to be found " — it can be scarcely otherwise in Nelson, when a Justice of the Peace, sitting on the Magistrate's Bench, as was the case on Friday, March Bth, blamed a policeman, publicly, for doing what, to most quietly -disposed citizens, appears nothing more than his duty. The case was this — Two gentlemen returning, on horseback, about 8 o'clock on the evening of the 7th, from a shooting excursion at Wakapuaka, considered the streets of Nelson in the dusk of the evening as a fair racing ground to test their horses' powers, and came from Collingwood-street bridge at a gallop, the one having so slack a rein on his horse, that in turning round the corner by the Mitre Hotel, he allowed Ms horse to get on the kerb stone by M'Gee's Hotel before he could turn him, running against a man, and nearly capsizing him, but not warned by this, "with a sack rein and standing in his stirrups, kept on the same pace towards the Trafalgar Hotel, at which crossing he knocked over an old settler of the name of Armstrong breaking both hones of one of his legs; he did not pull up nor attempt to do so, but urged his horse to greater speed and rode away. A policeman, who had seen his figure and the accident, but did not know the gentleman, at a later period of the evening met with him, arrested him and took him to the Station-house, charged him with furious riding, by which a man had been knocked down and seriously injured. On the case being heard before two Justices of the Peace, they fined the gentleman some pounds for furious riding, at the same time blaming the Constable for arresting him, " as being a straining of the law and an infringment of the liberty of the subject." Mr. Armstrong who is an old and respected settler, now lies in danger of his life, the shock to his system having resulted in delirium and nervoos depression so great that it is feared he will not rally from it. Is it the opinion of our Magistrates, that men may ride recklessly through our streets, injuring and maiming our citizens, endangering their lives, and that the very men whom we pay to protect our lives and properties, the policemen, are exceeding their duties when they arrest men so doing ? Ho.v can the J. P., who, on Friday, the Bth of March, 1872, thought it obligatory to fine a man for doing a thing unlawful, reconcile that judgement and the blaming the policeman for arresting the man, when he as Magistrate was compelled to punish ? Will such inconsistency make our police more vigilant ? Will it not make them shut their eyes when they see misdemeanours committed for iear the J.P.s should hold them to blame for doing that for which the citizens pay them to do ? I am, &c, " Citizen."