The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY). MONDAY, JUNE 3, 1878.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5361, 3 June 1878, Page 2

The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY). MONDAY, JUNE 3, 1878.

The honorable member for Auckland City East is, if anything, a patriot. He is also a lawyer. He lias the happy knack of making both professions contribute; to tho personal advantage of W. L. Rees; Like his great chief and hero, he presents occasionally to the public the emotional side of his mind; he, also, has visions; of “ banners ” of fame streaming from the : hands of countless millions of future Now Zealanders, on which will be inscribed in golden letters, against the names of those who shall give themselves to their country, the legend—That, ;in “ the days of New Zealand’s danger there “ were found-there men who did their duty.” In the legal and practical side of his mind the streamers may take the shape of bills of costs, on which are inscribed, also in “ golden ” letters—

Fee paid Mr. Bees; flve hundred guineas; "Hefreßher'’.paid Mr. Hees, two hundred and fifty ..’guineas.! 1 -

Our first quotation is made from Mr. Rees’ pamphlet on the “ coming crisis,” in which, with a view to the destruction of the hydra-headed Vogel Ministry, he demonstrated that financial chaos had come,! and that even the deposits of-the working men of New Zealand in the Government savings banks had been swallowed upj in the Vooelian “ maelstrom ” of profligate expenditure,' Our second. quotation is made from a little>bill of costs said; to have been presented to that “poor creature, 7 the Queen;' by Messrs. 'Mislof and Creagh, solicitors, of Oamaru, as representing, weakly, in; figures, the anxiety of mind, the ability and the energy expeuded'-in the defence of citizen George Jones against the. vengeance of ; the House ,of Representatives. ■ That' corrupt body had ventured to express, and to place.upon record,,an opinion that citizen George Jones aforesaid, .in his newspaper, the “Oamaru Mail,” had' foully libelled a gentleman, who was at once a i high’officer of the Crown, and a member of that House, and had. directed a prosecution therefor. In another column will be found (reprinted from the ‘Dunedin “ Morning Herald”) an. article on the subject of the bill of Messrs. HislOp and Creagh,' rendered by their agent, Mr. J. A. Hislop, amounting to the modest sum of £2117. 14s. for costs, of the defendant in this suit, Regina v. Jones. In addition to fee and refresher for. patriotic and liberal Mr. Rees, there is the little item of fee, ,£270 for Mr. Hislor; there is also a moderate refresher of £137 10s. for Mr- 1 Hislop aforesaid. The fee of. the, junior is less in amount than the refresher of the leading counsel; i This;'we presume, is right, although it may seem, to laymen, an unfair distribution of the spoil; .but the Law Society are, no doubt, properly careful that the distance between Sergeant Bgzfoz and Mr. Solomon Pell shall always be distinctly marked by the figures on a brief. Onreferance to the voluminous reports of the’ proceedings in this case, it will be seen that the public efforts of the learned counsel in defence of the sacred . freedom of the “Oamaru Mail” were confined to the preparation of the drafts of ..threepleasot justification of Citizen Jones, and to what the “Timaru Herald ” calls “ gassing” in court by Mr. Rees. The first plea as we have already said, in a former reference to this cause, was at once withdrawn on being challenged, as being. unfit to hold water. The 'second plea was rejected by the' Court, upon , demurrer, as' ■ being insufficient. Then, having received their respective refreshers, the learned counsel nerved themselves for a third; and supreme effort by which they declared they would “island or fall.” They fell.' The third plea, as we have said; might have been prepared by Sir George Grey himself, who-was then, by accident, in Dunedin. It reproduced all the Premier’s favorite charges against Mr. Whitaker ■ the utter falsity: of all of which, had been publicly and officially demonstrated over and over again, and, with the minuteness of a jFrench Acte d'accusation of a prisoner’ in u criminal trial,—detailed every land purchase, which Mr. Whitaker was known to have made during the last thirty years, to all of which the' expletives illegal, . fraudulent, dishonest were applied with the true petti-’ i fogging iteration, andaro no doubteharged for, per folio, in the Bill., The third plea shared the fate of the others. . Now, wo are not .disposed to contest the right of legal gentlemen to capture the fiahthatcomeinto their professional net, or fheirrighttoregardallthingsasfishy,which may chance to be found'there: .But; one’s sinse of the fitness of things is somewhat shocked on seeing two honorable [gentlemen,. members of the House-of Repreaen- , tatives, engaged as counsel for the defence i in an action ordered by the House itself • to be brought against a slanderer by whom the honor of the House in the person of one,, of.'its- members; 1 a ; high ■ officer, the Attorney-General; .was; assailed. Neither was it fitting, as wo think, that the head of the Government, charged : by the House with the duty of, carrying on the prosecution, should, even by accident, have appe4ared on the stump in Dunedin, at the time appointed for the trial, where his action might appear to influence, public ■ feeling and the - mind of jurors, by giving : a political party ■ character , to; the, prosecution, when it was tho'purpojs'ahd. desire o.f.th®

of Representatives that it should not bear that character. There were timesvwhen the expressed purpose of one Government was to attain an equilibrium, andof another Government to obtain ‘‘rest.” ’We are‘i\ow in the' days of economy, of retrenchment, and of a surplus which shall be the '■ measure ofthe public virtue of the Government. These fees and refreshers, and thaoharges for recording lies at per folio for Mr. J ones; come out of thepocketsof the people and are paid for by taxation, as the cost of the Hinomoa, and of the special trains which take Ministers away .from their .offices and prevent, them from doing the public work, are paid. We are told by tho Premier that when the properly of wicked : landholders and capitalists is improved,' it is by taxes levied upon “ little children ” that tho money is raised; and that it is the bread and butter and the sugar that is spread thereon, and tho little frocks and bootikina, and tho other unmentionable articles specially .used by those innocents, which pay the taxes that fatten ■ these ogres, with the forty-five votes. It would be unjust to the' Premier to hold him accountable for the action of the Ebbs and the Hislops, the Lusks and the Toles, who choose to call themselves Greyites; but, he has no doubt great 1 influence over these gentlemen, and:in .this particular case we hope he will not fail to exercise it, and to repeat with emphasis for their: use the economic ■ homily from which we have quoted above,- ■ and which has moved excited crowds So often during his recent tour of the colony. It may have some effect; if nbtj seeing that Mr. Rees and Mr. Hisuopare patriotic liberals, and that, the public purse being now lawfully .open to them, they appear about to thrust iu both "hands up jto[ the elbows, and till their hats beside, we venture to repeat to them Mr. Punch’s cole- , brated advice to "persons about to marry—. Don’t! Twelve hundred and twenty-two pounds ten shillings, besideajperquisites, is too much to pay two legal gentlemen for having failed to draw even 1 one plea for Jones which an impartial and indulgent Court-could receive as being sufficient, or in accordance with law. - Theeffeotive “gassing” for the, verdict was not done in .Court, by Mr. Rees, but .was done at the ' theatre and at a banquet, byau advocate whoso bill, not yet made up, will be much larger,, indirectly, than that of Messrs. Rees and Hislop, - and will not be liquidated or wiped out, we fear, for a very long time to come.