RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 204, 25 August 1873, Page 2

RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT

(Before L. Broad, Esq., R.M.) G. A. Simpson and B. Crisp Junior, remanded from Saturday last on a charge of stealing shot and caps from Mr E. W. Dee, were brought up again this morniDg. Prosecutor said he did not wish to press the charge against Crisp, who, he did not believe was concerned in the actual stealing, but was an accessory after the fact. Prisoner was discharged with a caution. — Simpson Wftß remanded for sentence until to-morrow, his Worship meantime administering a lecture to him for the levity of his demeanor. Henry Barker, a lad of 9 years of age, was charged with stealing a watch, the property of Mr H. Lovel. Sentenced to three days imprisonment and to be privately whipped by the warder of the gaol»

Hopgoodv. Silcock. — Claim for £29. Judgment was given to-day in this case, which was heard some time since, for £25 2s. 7d., including the amount paid into Court, and costs, £3 Ba. Tregea v. Batchelor.— Claim for £10, being value of a dog alleged to have been shot by defendant. Judgment was given for tbe defendant without, costs.

The Taranaki Heralda&ja: "During the last four years, the Province has progressed amazingly. The settlements of Patea, Hawera, and Waitara are becoming populated, whilst the out-districts are likewise increasing in the nunpber of settlers. Fresh lund is every year being taken up for cultivation, and the natives are for the first time for many years offering large blocks of land for sale." Provincial Officers Disqualification Bill. — In speaking to the motion that this Bill, introduced by Mr J, E. Brown, bo read the second time, Mr Fitzherbert said that, in his view, constitutional changes of the kind should emanate froro the Government. He was not preparod to go tho length of the Commissioner of Customs to say the bill was a farce. He had no doubt that the gentleman who had stepped out of his way to bring it in thought that he was doing the State a nervice. He was not the only instance which the legislative history of the colony furnisher] of members who had mistaken iheir calling. He should have wfuied till he occupied a seat on the Ministerial benches. They had had many instances of tnembsrs — young members mostly — who, with the courage of self-taught practitioners in surgery, were ready to apply the knifo when the most skilled professional hands would hesitate. He referred to a bill which had been introduced some years ago for disqualifying Commissioners of Crown Lands. It was the greatest land jobbers in the colony who promoted that bill. Had they not perhaps a parallel in the present instance ? Did it not emanate from personß -who were perhaps desirous that Provincial matterß ehoulcl not be too closely looked into. As to the proposal to move the Superintendents to the Upper House, he could conceive of no greater insult (laughter). He would explain what he meant. It was an insult to the Lower House to reduce it; to a dead level, and to the Upper House to introduce an alien element. The bill was nothing better than an outrage on the rights of the electors. The House had no right to dictate to them who they should send up." The Bill was thrown out on a division by 44 to 12