PICKINGS FROM "HANSARD."

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IX, Issue 176, 27 July 1874, Page 2

PICKINGS FROM "HANSARD."

Under this heading we propose from time to time to publish such short extracts from Hansard as we think will prove interesting or amusing to our reaJers. The following are from No. 2:— New Zealand Handbook. Mr Wakefield, in moving|for a return of the cost of this book, severely criticised ita contents, especially that portion of it contributed by Mr Fox, who, he hoped, would forgive him for saying that he was disappointed at his contribution. In concluding his speech, he said: — "In its present form, he considered the Handbook three years behind the age. There was a special deficiency in the want of comment on the statistical information given. There was nothing in the shape of anlaysis; nothing of what is too dry and technical eliminated or struck out; no explanation or illustration to put the information in a form that would be interesting to intending colonists. There was a want of attractiveness to readers who were en the look out for a new country to emigrate to; and in the absence of this feature in the work, it must fall very far short of the object contemplated." Mr Vogel, in replying, said: — "Had he badany notion of the trouble and time the supervision of the work would entail, he certainly never would have undertaken it. He had to read many times over a large cumber of papers, sooe of them not of a very interesting nature; and as a matter of fact, the preparation of the work gave him an immense amount of trouble. * * * In preparing information for intending immigrants, it waa not 'necessary that it should be of an amusing nature; the work was intended to convey useful information to persona who might contemplate making New Zeaiand their future home. There might ba inaccuracies in the book, but the work on his part was an entirely gratuitous undertaking. So much had been said as to the necessity of obtaining a work of the kind, and so little had been done towards supplying it, that he undertook the task and completed it to the best of his ability. Mr Fox said as Mr Wakefield had singled him out for the piece de resistance of his criticism, he /elt bound to make one or two brief observations upon his remarks. la the first place, as ihe honorable member said he hoped he (Mr Fox) would not be offended with his remarks, he could assure him with the utmost candour that he did not attach the slightest importance to them. Cuaeges against Judge Chapman. Mr J. L. Gillies moved for copies of all correspondence in relation to complaints made by Judge Ward against Judge Chapman. Mr Fox thought it was desirable that the scandal in connection with the Bench at Dunedin should sink into oblivion aa early as consistant with the public good. As regarded the quarrel between Judge Chapman and Judge Want, he thought it was a very pretty quarrel as it stood. Perhaps the residents of Otago might fee! dissatisfied with the position io which two members of the Bench were placed; but they were not sitting upon the same Bench, and were not likely in future to come into collision unless in cases of appeal, and he could not imagine that what had passed would in any way affect the decision of the higher Court in the event of any appeal from the Court below. The quarrel, therefore, between the Judges was not likely to have any public or political influence which would demand the grave attention of the House. It was not likely to disturb the current of justice, and it might be left to vanish in obscurity by the lapse of time. Mr T. B. Gillies said that tha real question involved in the matter of the telegrams was the position of the administration of justice in the colony — a matter than which none could be be of greater importance. It was as to whether charges of gross favor i tism made by one Judge of the Supreme Court against another were to be set aside, taken no notice of, ignored altogether. Mr J. L. Gillies, in replyiug, said that he very much regretted that there should be any necessity whatever for bringing such a matter before the House; but he conceived that to leave it in its present state would be a much sadder thing. It would b9 much worse to leave the public in their present unsatisfactory state of feeling, arising from the fact that they were led to believe that one Judge had charged another with being grossly partial in the performance of his public duties. There was no more important duty devolving upon the representatives of the people than the watching with jealous care the preservation of the purity and uprightness of the judicial Bench. Electbic Telegraph Bill. Mr Vogel, in moving the second reading of this Bill, said that the most important past of it was that which referred to the power of ordering the production of telegrams in evidence in Courts of Justice. It proposed to enact that telegrams should only be producible in evidence with the consent of either the sender or receiver. # » « There had been for some time a tendency to use the Telegraph Department for the purpose of obtaining evidence in Courts of Justice. Now he thought .that he might rely that that members of the legal profession in

the housa would bear him out in saying that there was nothing which was more abhorrent to the law than the exercise of what were known as the "roving "or "fishing" propensities of legal practitioners. It was an accepted fact that the Law Courts should do all they possibly could to prevent lawyers from fishiDg out evidence, or from rovicg about for evidence for the purpose of using it to supply cause for legal proceedings. However, it was very clear that a tendency was growing 'n this country, in soma quarters, to use the Telegraph Department for roving or fishing purposes. Licensing Bill. Mr Fox, in moving for the production of copies of all instructions issued to Resident Magistrates or Licensing Boards relating to the " Licensing Act 1873," said that, he was aware the Act hac failed to a great extent in carrying out the intentions o( even tho33 who had formed the most moderate expectations with regard to its results. The causes of that failure were, to his mind, very plain, and were chiefly owing to the late period at which the proclamations calling it into operation and appointing the districts to be issued; so that persons living in the various districts were really uoable to take measnres which would give effect to their wishes on the licensing day. Another cause of failure was to be found in the large si'ae and peculiar formation of the districts recommended by the Be3ident Magistrates, to whom that duty was delegated. If those gentlemen had been publicans themselves, or devoted to the publicans' interests — which he did not for a moment suppose to have been the case — they could not have devised districts more suited to keep things as they were prior to the passing of the Act than in several cases with which he was acquainted.