THE WINTER SHOW.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 8, 10 June 1913, Page 5

THE WINTER SHOW.

WRIT OF MANDAMUS REFUSED. ' Per Press Association. • Wanganui, Last Nigkt. Justice Sim gave judgment, to-day im a case in which the plaintiff Cos-j stable David Burnett Murray, and thedefendants, Leonard Grenwell Reid,. Stipendiary Magistrate of Carterton, and' Elizabeth Bo we, of Carterton. The action was a motion for a writ, of aandamus, commanding Mr. Reid to heir and determine an information charging t the defendant, Elizabeth Bowe,witha* offence under Section 41, of > the Gaming Act, 1908, namely, with disposing of horse in an art union. When the cast was called on before the Magistrate, the" defendant Bowe pleaded not guilty} her counsel having obtained from the informant an admission tyiat no notice, in writing of his intention to prosecute defendant had been given to her and thereupon contended that such notice 'was. necessary, under Section 74, of .the Gaming Act 1908, and that the information should be dismissed on this ground, ihe Magistrate held that this objection wfsfatal, and, without hearing any evident, dismissed the information. His Honor, in giving judgment, said it wa* clear that the decision of the Magistrate was wrong. The provisions of. Seotion 74 jj were ienacted for the protection of per.-, sons acting in pursuance, or intena- • ing pursuance, of powers conferred by the Act, and not for the protection' of persons charged with having violate# the provisions of the Act. The xmly question was whether the decision of ? the JJfgfistra.te was an erroneous one* on 1 the .'•jpietHs. 6ij amounted in effect to a i refusal to'niar and determine tHe. ease- r. It the decision was on the-merits,, then, ? howevei|\wMg it might haye been, it "t could not' be. reviewed by a process of f mandamus. Motion for mandamus. 1 would be dismissed on the jjround thatJ the Magistrate did not declincr jurisdiction m the sense of refusing to hear the case, or in the sense of deciding against the complainant on a paint preliminary to hearing of the merits, but that ! <hft decided in effect on a defence made by the respondent. No costs were allowed