AN ARMFUL OF LAW.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1370, 18 October 1883, Page 3

AN ARMFUL OF LAW.

When the Doric arrived at Auckland wharf there was a great rush to get on board her. A quartermaster was told off to prevent anyone getting on the deck, and he had turned a number of persons back when (says the New Zealand Herald) His Honor Judge Gillies passed through the crowd, and in happy ignorance of the order given, and of what had occurred, went straight up the gangway. The crowd began to cry out, “ Put him back, too; make no fish of one and flesh of another.” But the remarks were quite superfluous The quartermaster, in a twinkling, had the Bench in his vice-like grasp Tne Judge remonstrated ; but the only reply was, “ Can’t help it, sir; if it was the ship’s owner, orders must be obeyed.” At this juncture Mrßatger, the local manager of the New Zealand Shipping Company, who was on board, got sight of what was going on, and, horrified at the contempt of Court which was being committed, began a series of pantomimic gestures to the sailor, to the effect that the Judge should pass on ; but it was of no avail, and the officer on duty at the head of the gangway at last set matters right by releasing His Honor, who, throughout, kept his temper and self control remarkably well. The crowd jocularly asked the quartermaster if he had ever had as much law as that in his arms before, and cautioned him to keep straight while in this port, as if he “ went up ” before the Bench there was a twelvemonth in store for him to a dead certainty.