The Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 1872.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 201, 23 August 1872, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 1872.

A considerable amount of very pardonable indignation was expressed within the precincts of the Court on Tuesday last — in some instances in terms more forcible than polite— with reference to the great inconvenience occasioned by the inability of the Registrar to pay the fees of the witnesses and jurymen who had been in attendance. It appeared that that officer had written to the authorities in Wellington on the 9th instant, advising them that he should require to be placed in funds for the purpose, and that, in the absence of any reply, he had twice since telegraphed his wants, but without producing the desired effect. The result was that jurors from all parts of the country within a radius of twenty miles from town, and witnesses from the West Coast and Golden Bay were compelled to leave the Court without; their fees, and the latter would have had to proceed to their homes without their money had not the Provincial Government come to the rescue yesterday and advanced the necessary funds. This is a state of things that most certainly should not be allowed. Jurymen are not supposed to be paid a sum' that is sufficient to remunerate them for their loss of time, but merely enough to cover the expenses to which they are put in attending to their duties, bat this intention is entirely frustrated if they are compelled to waste an additional day in coming into town to receive what is due to them for their services:; during the two or three days they are engaged in Court.", Even though the Registrar should have the requisite funds at his disposal/" a ;; great , ; deal|ofi unneicWary delay and ", consequent inconvenience may he, under!

the present system, occasioned to witnesses and jurors. >For-> instance, supposing the sittingfsfpf the Court to have lasted two days, and that the third is to be devoted to the liearingi of a case that is likely to last until late in ihe afternoon* The whole panel, with the exception of the twelve men who are required on the jury, are nominally released from further attendance at ten o'clock in the morning, but as the Registrar is unable to leave the Court during the day, the twenty-four who have been dismissed — thirty-six being the number that is usually summoned — must either remain in town until the case is over and he is able to attend to them, or they must leave without their money. The present system of making General Government payments has never, worked satisfactorily in this province, and we may fairly presume that similar complaints arise in other places. lustead of there being a paymaster in Nelson who has the power to at once meet all local demands on the Treasury, there is a constant sending to and fro between here and Wellington, which, in addition to being a thoroughly unintelligible process to the uninitiated, is invariably attended with considerable inconvenience, and very frequently with a great deal of vexatious delay and an amount of uncertainty as to the date on which the claims are likely to be satisfied that to men engaged, in business is annoying in the extreme. Vouchers are sent without cheques, cheques unaccompanied by vouchers, and, judging from the numerous complaints that are to be heard of the many ingeniously devised obstructions that are placed .in the way of obtainiug money from the Colonial Government, we are led to believe that the art of " how not to do it " has been most triumphantly achieved in the Treasury department. It may be that the manifold forms that have to be observed before that which is due to one having claims on the Government can be extracted from the Colonial chest, tend in some incomprehensible manner to facilitate the keeping of the accounts in Wellington, but, if such be the case, we can safely say that the desired result is attained at the expense of such of the payees as live at a distance from that favored spot. The occurrence that has given rise to these remarks is but one instance out of many of the annoyances that are produced by the existing regulation?, which, so far as the public convenience is concerned, are immeasurably inferior to those that preceded them.