RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT.

Southland Times, Issue 1178, 18 June 1869, Page 2

RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT.

(TO THE EDITOB OF THE SOUTHLAND TIME 3.) Sib — As a resident in the town allow me to use your columns to comment upon a case heard recently, in the Resident Magissrate's Court, in which the decision appears to be at variance with reason and sound judgment. The case to which I allude, Bain r. Froggatt, was an action to recover damages from defendant for having cut down timber on plaintiff's land. The trespass was admitted, and it was also admitted to have occurred accidentally — the plaintiff's land, fronting a government road, on which the defendant had liberty to cut timber, and the road line not being visible. Plaintiff valued the timber cut down — which by the way was not removed from plaintiff's land — at one pound per tree, but assigned no reason for affixing that value, beyond an idea of which he had of leaving the bush on the outside of his land to form a belt round his property. The timber cut down was on the very outskirt of the bush, and varying in diameter from nine inches to two feet. A disinterested witness called for plaintiff thought the trees cut down might be worth one pound each, but was unable to give any reason for such an idea, or to fix the details by which he arrived at such a valuation. For the defence three disinterested persons — all bushmen — were called, who stated positively that half a crown each was the outside value of the trees cut down. The Resident Magistrate gave his decision awarding damages at the rate of fifteen shillings for each tree. On what principle he arrived at this valuation I am at a loss to know, when the land on the spot is selling, as appeared, in the hearing of the case, at two pounds ten shillings per acre, with far better timber thereon than any on plaintiffs land. The decision awarded to plaintiff in addition to the money compensation, the retention of the timber cut. My conviction upon the matter is that an injustice has been committed, and this conviction arises from the absence of any reason given for the decisionr. To award as the money value of something over a dozen trees on the edge of ordinary bush land, a sum sufficient to purchase five acres of the land on which it grew appears so absurd an award as to require explanation. It is a serious matter to impugn a magisterial decision, but when it outrages reason, an onlooker has a right to speak. — I am, &c., Onwjokeb. Invercargill, June 15, 1869.