South Canterbury Times. TUESDAY, MARCH 29, 1881.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2503, 29 March 1881, Page 2

South Canterbury Times. TUESDAY, MARCH 29, 1881.

Justices’ justice is frequently rcfeTred to, as an enigma incapable of solution. In this colony it is* retailed in such a variety of shapes jhat to describe it is -frhpossible. Theever-changing designs t|ie. kaleidoscope may be varied, but stiey are not without harmony, and in this respect they are an improvement bn justices’ justice. Some singular and striking examples of the wondrously ; .erratic performances of the judicial mind* is furnished from Dunedin. A few days ago His Honor Judge Gillies rather astpnished and dismayed the waiters on providence at the Insolvent Court hy refusing to grant certificates of discharge except in cases where the applications were supported by a resolution of the creditors. The result was ; that very few certificates were granted, and the number of the “ unceitificated ” down South is at present greater than it has ever been known even in the worst of times. In this instance Judge Gillies is a new broom, in .& foreign Court. He is filling temporarily the office held by His Honor Judge Williams, who is enjoying a trip to the Old Country and a j^fipite—which, although he is a young judge ,apd keeps his youth remarkably well—is doubtless well earned; Whether the fact that Judge Gillies and his junior Triend are able to play a game of hide-nnd-seek without throwing the judicial business of Otago and Auckland into confusion indicates that the colony, in its normal condition, when all the scattered and absent ermine is. collected, is overjudged, is beside the question. > >What we wish to call attention to is that Judge Gillies has thought.pipper to introduce regulations of his own not mentioned in the Debtors and Creditors Actj and never ‘imposed- 'by his predecessor. Judge Williams, and that in consequence the. bankrupt applicants who waited on him the other day have been taken at ‘a No doubt Judge Gillies (Kasb a right to protect the creditors, but that’he should introduce 'regulations of his .own,, and iinpose conditions not -specified dn- the* Act which he is called upon to administer in a different matter. The debtors who waited on Judge Gillies had com-plied-with the provisions of the Act, rapid had Judge Williams presided on" •the Bench they would have obtained thefr‘'■certificates without a murmur. But because Judge Williams is .enjoy‘ing himself, and another Judge happens to; fill his place their applications* are refused; and they are virtually debarred from renewing .tfieif efforts in life. The law relating io bankruptcy

ipay, fin;|he opinion of Judge Gillies, be excessively bad, but is lie justified in hedging it in with restrictions that are entirely of bis own creation ? ’ As a Judge •• he js*supposed to administer,, not to legislate. Probably it did not occur to him that in his zeal to pro" te.ct creditors he is trespassing beyond his judicial jfppctions, and that in deviating from the course pursued by the Judge whose place he temporarily occupies, he is straining his power 'in an exceedingly arbitrary; direction,- and laying, down a precedent of an excessively dangerous nature. Having dealt .with the top sawyer we will take a glance at Justices’ justice, as administered by/the smallfry. That well-known Dunedin celebrity—the Dunedin Police Magistrate -—and a few of the great unpaid hare lately been assessing the value of a constable. “Wlr Watts estimate of a policeman is apparently very low, for he regards him in the light of a common football. About a week ago a stalwa'rt driver, of horseflesh figured before Mr Watt, on bail, charged with being drunk and disorderly and damaging the uniform of the arresting constable. The constable and other witnesses deposed that the man was drunk, and that he was violent was proved by the fact that he had to be conveyed to the watch-house in a cab, and .tore the'constable’s jumper on the way. -, Serg.t-M'ajor Sevan, who was in ■charge of the station, proVhd that the 'MaA' Was very‘drunk, „apd the hnly unbelievers-wei‘o the man himself and his wife who bailed him out a few hours .after he had been docked' up. Yet the Police Magistrate, who .is supposed, above everyone,to protect the police, gave the accused “ the benefit of the doubt ” and dismissed the charges, leaving the bruised and battered constable to patch his jumper at his own expense. Mr Watt’s decision uiat a constable is a football to be kicked by drunken.men at pleasure has naturally borne fruit. A man named Williams has since figured before the Bench for assaulting a constable in the execution of his duty arid damaging his uniform. The.evi-, dence in this instance shewed that Williams, being the worse of drink, was molesting a Chinaman, and on the constable interfering he was fiercely attacked. Luckily in ’ this instance a couple of Justices occupied the Bench, and a fine of £4 with 30b damages was ordered to be paid, in default eleven days’ imprisonment. By r a''/singular another pair of Lfthedin justices have imposed .a fine of £4 and 19s costs dri a brutal fellow who was convicted of cruelly beating a mare in the streets of the city. Now here we have a police magistrate first ruling that a constable may be kicked and have the jumper, torn from his back by any drunken! man who chooses to believe himfcelf sober, and then a quartette of justices sitting in braces and deciding that the carcase of a horse is as valuable as that of a constable, and administering a similar punishment to the man'tvho flogs a “jibbing mare” and the cowardly - vagabond who assaults a policeman jbecause he prevents‘"the perpetration of an outrage on a Chinaman. , Stijl it is better that they should be treated as horseflesh than that they should be dealt with as if they were inanimate Aunt Sallys for 4,runken pugilists to practice on. From the manner in which assaults on the police are dealt with in centre?. |l(te Dunedin, it is scarpeljjßurpci§ing that adult tlarrikinisni should be on the increase,' and that there should be a difficulty in getting good and efficient men to join the force.