AN INJUDICIOUS JUDGE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 201, 3 October 1878, Page 2

AN INJUDICIOUS JUDGE.

To the Enitc-R op iitb 'Evening Mall.' Stßj—lty the regulations of lUt. Indian Uovernment, its servants, after a certain number of years' service, are entitled to retire on a liberal pension, and are at liherty to take up their residence wheresoever they please. The result of this has been that many of them hav* ttt.udc their homes in hdw ;.eal and, whose climate, and especially that of Nelson, is thoroughly appreciated and enjoyed by them after twe'nty or thirty yi'ars spent under the burning sun of India. J hey are always welcomed to oHr shores fir they IlaVe hitherto invariably proved valuable acquisitions to the communities in which they have settled, and some of them, after t.iree or tour years colonial experience in the course of which they have made themselves acquainted with the politics and requirements of the country; lidve come forward'and taken a creditable part in public affairs. It is much to be regretted that one of these re tired officers who has recently come to New Zealand should have proved an exception to the rule. Judge Thomas, in whom the bump of sef esteem must be prominently developed after spending a few weeks in the colony and paying one or two flying visits to the Maoris in the North Island, Considered that he had made himself sufficiently, acquainted with the* habits* customs, prejudices, and traditions to undertake the ' solution of the native difficulty", and on the strength of this opinion of his own ability to master so abstruse and complicated a question in a few days he set to work to create a feeling of unrest and dissatisfaction in the native mind by publishing a pamphlet introducing a new system of dealing with the lauds as yet uuacquired by the Crown, in direct opposition to the wishes of the Government. Foiled in his attempt this peripatetic pamphleteer returned to Nelson, and for the nonce gave up dabbling iu matters pertaining to the State Jor the want, however, of something better to do, he has lately under- i taken to set right a section of the people of tnis town in matters ot theology and this-in so rough and unmannerly a way as to create a large amount of ill feeling, and to make enemies where lie might have found friends, or, at least, coadjutors. A more strikingillustration of the truth of Dr Watts' theory that a certain spirit of evil is always prepared to find mischievpus employment tor idle people thau is to be found in the person of _ this Judge is but rarely met with. It is needless for me to say that at present I am alluding to his recent conduct in connection with the proposal to introduce a certain hymnal into All Saints' Church Although I am diametrically opposed to him as to the merits of the book in question I respect his opinions and can appreciate the earnestness with which he advocates his views but I do think that the manner in which he has attempted to enforce them is objectionable in the extreme. In order to carry his point he caused to be published late on Saturday night a pamphlet, which, between the hours of ten and twelve, he sent round to the houses of individual members of the congregation, the object- or as I will more charitably put it, the tenor— of the letter being to sap their confidence in their newly I appointed pastor, and to induce them to beheve that instead of directing them iu the right way, he was, in conjunction with his choir, cuuu/iigly aud stealthily leading them I on doubtful paths. Jir.ngiiie -,vlm must have been the feelings of the minister on facing his congregation on Sunday moraine with the knowledge that each of them was^in possession of a publication in which charges of so grave a nature-charges, which, when brought to b ok, the Judge, as I am given to understand, did not even attempt to substantiate— were made against him. A more unmanly unmannerly, and ungenerous action it is scarcely possible to couceive, and I sincerely hope that the author of the pamphlet has so much good feeling left in him, as, upon reflection, to bitterly regret his folly— to use n very mild term indeed -and to wish that his right hand had been cut off! ere it had penned what was characterised at the parish meeting on Tuesday night as so "wretched a production." The most charitable cor.strnction that cau be placed on such a proceeding is that Judge Thomas was scarcely equal to appreciating the full import of what he was doing, and from this point of view any scheme, proposals, or objections that he may in ruture lay before the public or an v section ot it will be regarded, and the sole comment they are likely to call forth will be some such contemptuous remark as:— "Take no notice of them; they are but one more of that Indian Judge's fads." I am, &c, A Nelson Citizen.