South Canterbury Times, WEDNESDAY, JULY 28, 1880.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2297, 28 July 1880, Page 2

South Canterbury Times, WEDNESDAY, JULY 28, 1880.

A cask which we imagine ought certainly not to have been allowed to occupy the time of a Resident Magistrate’s Court has been seriously considered, argued, and slept over by Mr W. L. Simpson, the Resident Magistrate at Dunedin. A panorama has lately been successfully run in that city on the gift distribution principle. The Queen’s Theatre has been crowded nightly by men, women, and children, assembled ostensibly to look at the pictures, but in reality to enjoy the celestial game of fan-tan, carried on with envelopes instead of brass tokens. In addition to scores of trumpery gifts, a special prize in the shape of a suite of furniture worth over £2O is given away nightly, and this forms the great attraction. Recently a carter and his wife, named Sullivan, accompanied by a servant girl, went to try their luck. The envelopes they received on payment for admission turned out blanks, and they subsequently borrowed from one another and speculated a few half-crowns until a ticket with a number was scoured. The number turned out a lucky one, for it brought an album, and subsequently “ fetched” the furniture. The Sullivans were a newly married couple, and the male head of the gambling party with pardonable sagacity procured an express, and had the furniture conveyed to ids house. Next morning (he possession, however, was disputed, and the domestic and her mother—a lone widow—with a mild flourish of tongues instead of trumpets, laid hands on the furniture, and removed it (o their own domicile. Litigation ensued, counsel was employed, and, as we have said, the matter was duly argued in a court of justice. Of course the evidence was conflicting, the carter and his wife declaring that they were the purchasers of the luck}' ticket, while the domestic stoutly maintained that it was purchased on-hcr behalf, and with her own money by the male Sullivan. The matter was gravely argued, nonsuit points were raised and discussed, and singular to relate, while the legal arguments engrossed and puzzled the judicial mind of Mr Simpson, (ho illegal aspect of the question seems altogether to have escaped his attention. That worthy slept over the difficulty from Friday last till Monday, when he gave an elaborate judgment half a column in length, in which he ruled that the balance of corroborative testimony was in the carter's favor, the poor servant girl must give up the furniture, and she or “ the lone widow ” must pay the piper. The latter is a considerable item, for besides paying for her own counsel, the costs include £2 damages for detention, 10s costs of court, £3 for six witnesses, and £1 11s Gd for professional costs. This is very hard on a poor friendless domestic, who has been tempted to invest a few shillings in a popular gambling seance, audit is not very creditable that a Resident Magistrate should have his time taken up with these questionable disputes. If this case, can bo regarded as a precedent, Mr Simpson, R.M., may expect some of those days to be called in as arbitral* in a genuine Chinese Fan Tan dispute. His decision has invested this jmblic gift distribution with the full sanction of law and authority, and it has given the panorama and lottery proprietor a capital adverlisment. In decency, we presume, that gentleman will compensate the lone widow and her unsophisticated daughterfor tlicirloss of cash, not to speak of furniture and time. Or, if he is inclined to be liberal, he might go further and compensate the State for allowing judicial cognisance to be taken of the European Fan Tun, as exemplified by the combination of pictures, envelopes, and lottery boxes.