Untitled

Southland Times, Volume 2, Issue 63, 16 June 1863, Page 2

■ ♦ (To the Editor of the Invercargill Tit In your contemporary's last isst favors us with some remarks on the proceedings in the Resident Magis Court against a stockholder, for hay; fected sheep in his possession. Any all acquainted with the facts of the ca; at once perceive that he has founded 1 marks and opinion on information c exparte. If he had net he might have tamed that the defendant was not the draw the attention of the inspector fact, " that the sheep were infected," bu he had reason to believe that they w fected.'' The defendant has hitherto experience himself of the disease in qi but he acted wisely in giving imi notice to the inspector, and in dipping on the mere suspicion; and the in would have acted as wisely if he had " The sheep have been too recently for me to give a decided opinion, bu see them again in ten days or a fortnij However, he inspected the sheep, he says and swears, one particular sh< he c ught was unmistakably infected, suppose the defendant can bring two*:.j judge j, of undoubted experience of shi of the disease, to swear that this pa: sheep was not only not unmistakably ii but that it was not infected at all, a in their opinion the flock in quest never been infected at all, and that fendant had acted openly and wisely i ing the inspector's attention to th< directly he even suspected they we eased, and in dipping them as apiecai measure. If this or anything like it to evidence, ought " the inspector's ti to be received as conclusive evidence c 'stence of the disease." Of course, " the burden of proof si thrown on the prosecutor, and a man be deemed innocent till he is proved I should hope there is no doubt of any criminal proceedings whatever, your contemporary mean to say tl sheepholder is not to dispute the die the inspector, even if he doubts his tency, but to go on from year to year, into town, appearing before mag entering into bonds, and paying the fii while all the time he may b° ;ii -L5* c »os prove that his sheep have never been And here let me tell your contes that the tonds aie not mere matters of but that they are meant to be enfor< have been enforced in several instancf Your contemporary's observations 1 inspector travelling about with two

instantiate his charges, are as absurd as the rest of his remarks, with this addition, that they are insulting to the stockholders of the Province. Ido riot believe that there^s one of them would dispute a charge of this sort, except on very good grounds, much less to suborn witnesses to swear falsely. But I do wonder at an editor of your contemporay's experience, simply on hearing one side of the case, and knowing that the other has still to be heard, proceeding to judge and Secide the case, to inflict the penalty, and to Ifl^aider the question of costs. Hear htm : — WBfciat claim will he have to the con>id?ratiolmt the public prosecutor, or the court. eith<* in the matter 'of penalty or costs t What ground to urge either for the defeimentof the one or the 'remanding of the other ? " Why, I should say, the same claim and the same grounds that any man has, who openly resists the infliction of a penalty for on offence of which he cannot be proved guilty, and of which he has every reason to suppose he is innocent. 41 The course he has adopted must naturally interfere with the inspector's duty in more than one part of the Province, whe c his presence may be urgently required.' This is rubbish. The Province is not so large but that the inspector, or any one else, may ride through, the length and breadth of it in two days ; and as the inspector has a fair horse allowance, and not more than thirty stations to look after, and is relieved from the inspection at the Bluff, I cannot conceive that he can be so much pressed for time as your •contemporary would have us believe. In the foregoing remarks I do not intend to cast any ; reflections on the competency of our present inspector ; but let us have fair play, and be allowed to defend ourselves if we are unjustly accused ; and I would say to your contemporary, when next he reviews a case still before the court, instead of pre-judging it so dogmatically as he has this, on hearing what one man on one side has to say about it, audi alteram partem. Yours, A Flockowner.