"DOWN" ON A GOOD TEM PLAR.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1309, 14 April 1883, Page 4

"DOWN" ON A GOOD TEM PLAR.

Onr of the comical interludes in criminal trials, which come in like a Joke ata funeral, caused grim amusement at the Supreme Court yesterday. An oldish man named Edward Price, alios Geroge Pearce, was indicted for passing a valueless cheque on a clothier at Carterton. Prisoner (before the Jury were sworn to " well and truly try ") asked' Judge Richmond if he might challenge hotelkeepers. Judge ; Yes; you have twelve challenges, and nobody will ask your reasons for chai, lensing. Prisoner s But how am I to know if he is an hotelkeeper 1 I know an hotelkeeper won’t give Good Templar the elightest—■ Judge I You will have to Judge for yourself. But you don't mean to say the whole nee of hotelkeepers have a ’’ down " on your ? Prisoner i They’re generally down upon Good Templars. I Judge ; Oh, you are a Good Templar a ling heartily) ; you will know the look otelkeeper, I suppose. Jourors were then sworn one by one, and the prisoner scrutinised each Juror as he passed to the box. A commission agent, who is well known to be a Good Templar was first objected to by the prisoner, who appeared to distrust also the temperance brotherhood. Then a stoutish Juror stood up for challenge, and was looked over suspeciously on account of his stoutness ; but the juror’s face seemed hardly rosy enough for an hotelkeeper, and the prisoner let him pass as a doubtful party. The twelve jurors were nearly complete, when another stoutish party stood up for challenge, carrying an umbrella, and being a little flushed in the face, as hotelkeepers are apt to be from causes beyond their control. Prisone (sharply): Are you an hotelkeeper ? Suspected juror said nothing, but looked inside his hat and then looked towards the Good Templar in the dock. Prisoner : Because if you are an hotelkeeper, I object to you (shaking his head at him). That suspected juror had to stand aside, and twelve “good men and true” being made up without and hotelkeeper, so far as the Good Templar in the dock could detect outward and visible signs of hotelkeapers’ malice prepense, the Jury were duly sworn, and the trial of a Good Templar proceeded—with what result will appear in another column.