The Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, AUGUST 16, 1818.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 170, 16 August 1878, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, AUGUST 16, 1818.

If oue half o£ tile charges reported In Hansard to have been tnade by Mr Barton against the Wellington police can be substantiated it is high time that ft clerf.il sweep 1 was made in that department. We will mention two or three of thehi. One relates to a man bnnifed Illighes; wild miidb ail assault Upon the tiUlicet i'rtr which life was arrested. " Aftcf his arrest the police handCuffed him, and tied him down on his back to an iron ring let into the iioor of the police cell, lie lay there handcuffed and iielpless, and a certain jiolitJeman visited the cell f rblil time to time, and then beat and kicked him." That surely is a pretty serious accusation to make. Here is another. A man was arrested on a Sunday morning for beiug drunk. On being taken to the lock-up he was asked to give the name of the man who had supplied him with the drink. This he refused io do, whereupon he was handcuffed and tied down on his back to ci ring in the cell floor. Several times during the day he was visited by a police officer and told that if be gave the desired information he would be relieved from that particularly painful position. He still obstiuately refused, and consequently remained handcuffed and tied down from half-past two on Sunday afternoon uritil tCii o'clock on Monday morning, wbfen he was" taken before the Magistrate and discharged with a caution. On arriving at his master's place he was unable to work, and showed his wrists which were lacerated and swollen from the chafing of the handcuffs. Both master and man, s*id Mr Barton j could I • produced as witnesses. Another very gravb. charge was that of favoritism. "He 3) (Mr Barton) "had materials which would tena to show that, when certain licensed houses got into the hands of certain brewers, the persons who were put into those houses at once became persons of bad character, and the houses themselves became old and dilapidated. _ By some extraordinary power of reasoning, also, when these houses agaiucame to be supplied by certain other brewers, the characters of the holders became resuscitated, the houses got uewly covered with the best tiles and slates, and were in every way fit to be used as public housesand places of resort." Mr Barton is quite right in saying that it is high time au enquiry was made into these matters. Oveh 500 signatures have been attached to the petition praying for a remission of the sentence passed on Newman Boseley some four years ago. The petition, we understand, will receive powerful support from the Nelson members of the Assembly. Many of our readers, and especially the Volunteers, will be sorry to learn that as the result of the coach accident met with by Captain Marshall some months ago he is likely to lose the use of one of his arms for life. A jootbaix match between the Town and College teams will be played at the Botanical Reserve to-morrow af teruoou. The monthly meeting of the members of the Young Men's Christian Association will be held this evening at half-past seveu. Among the iusolvency notices in the Christchurch Press of the 13th inst. appears that of Lcightou Ivesteveu, of Ashburton, medical practitioner. In the Legislative Council on the Gth instant, the Hon. Captain Eraser asked the Colonial Secretary, whether it was the intention of the Government to move an address by the two Houses of Parliament to Earl Beaconsfield, as a recognition by the the colony of the noble attitude he took in defence of the honors and rights of the British Empire?— Tbe lion Colonel Whitmore said that, as the question related to a matter which as yet had not gone beyond the confidental stage, he had communicated with the Premier, who had intimated that he had no objection to the intentions of the Government being made public. He had therefore to inform the Council that some days ago the Cabinet, through the Premier, forwarded a communication to Lord Beaconsfield, requesting that an official, intimation might be mudo to the Governor of the results of the Congress at Berlin, in order that Parliamentmight pass a resolution upon the subject. The Government -were still waiting for a reply to that communication, and as soon as they received it they Avould have the honor to introduce to both branches of the Legislature suitable resolutions' with reference to the event.