The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1882.

Temuka Leader, Issue 916, 11 February 1882, Page 2

The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1882.

The way iu which our railways are managed was illustrated by a case which came before the Temuku Resident Magis-. trate’s Court, last Monday, when Mr AlfrecJ Lawrence, late stationmaster in charge of the Winchester, station, was fined To for allowing two qows ; belonging, to him to wander on the railway. Now we have no fault to find with, the railway anthori-. ties for,.taking prompt and vigorous, steps to prevent cattle from straying on the railway, because the, lives, of- passengers, wop Id often.be in danger if the line, was not kept, clear. But we. bavp a.faujt to find with the way ip which.this particu-. lar case of Alfred, Lawrence \yas brought; before the Court, as.it appears to,us that a, spirit of vindictiveness and petty tyranny permeates the whole proceeding. , Of course, we are not in the confidence of ( the railway officials, and therefore have, 1 no data to,, go upon, except what, w,as,j elicited in evidence during, the hearing of , ( the case. It.appeared. that Mr Lawrence.) j was stationmaster. at, Winchester, and 11

;being an industriousi frugal mm, had two ,cqws in a paddock belonging to Mr "Paterson. -It was the custom to bring these pows tq the stockyard tq be milked. Qoe day they strayed on the railway line while being driven by two of Mr Lawrence's children, and as if spies had been set to watch them they were pounced upon by a ganger named Exton, and impounded, Now this ganger knew the cows belonged to Mr Lawrence, and Jit must be admitted, that to impound them while Mr Lawrence was only a few chains way from where they were trespassing at the time, was a very unfriendly way for one official of the railway to behave towards'another. We tio not think, however, that Exlon could have done otherwise, as it seems tq us that be was only acting under inductions from higher authority. Subsequent proceedings prove that the impounding of the cattle was the preliminary stop to a preconcerted plan to persecute Mr Lawrance. Hitherto, whenever have been impounded for trespassing on the railway line, the railway authorities have reported the matter to the police, who have prosecuted the owners but in this instance that course which, we believe, has never been deviated from before, was abandoned, and the case was placed in the hands of the Crown Prosecutor, in Timaru, to conduct. Now, why was this dope. 1 Could not the police prosecute Mr Lawreuce as well as they prosecuted Mr Storey, and Mr Taylor for similar offences on the same day. There is not. we believe, an instance on record in South Canterbury, or perhaps in New Zealand, in which the Crown Prosacliter, has been, employed to conduct a case of cattle trespass on th,e railway, and the only conclusion that can be come to, after haying considered all the bearings of the case is, that the. object was to get convmtion at all risks against Mr Lawrence, and to mulct him in as heavy expenses as possible. We. ought to have stated before, that another preliminary step was the suspending of Mr Lawrence, and thus, besides having been put to great expense, he was deprived of his m.eans of living. Was it on, account of those cows being on the line, he was suspended ? If it was, the, sooner- he is I reinstated in his ; office again the better for those who suspended him, we should think, for surely the Minister for Public Works would never tolerate such a gross outrage upon justice to be donq. as to deprive a maR, of his means of living for such, a cause. It is an axiom of British law that no man shall be punished twice for the same offence. This seems to have been quite disregarded in the case of Alfred Lawrence, by the Magistrate as, well as tire, railway authorities. The Magistrate gave no consideration at all t 0 the fact that he was suspended, nor to %e pertinacity with which h,e. was sleuthhounded, but knocked down the case in that cavalier, oft-band way peculiar to the knights of th% hummer. Perhaps be thought the sentence just, and if it was just, we can only say, save us from justice with which there is not mixed one single sentiment of human feeling. There may be private reasons for the course adopted with Alfred; Lawrence, W® confess we do not know anything further than what was elicited in the evidence, but w.e think that is sufficient, to show that he has been made the victim of either capriciousness or maliciousness on the part of his superiors. If he had been treated in the ordinary way, and mulcted in a fine like any other individual member of the community, we should, never have noticed thp matter. What, we complain of is the exceptional course that was adopted, and the spirit of vindictiveness manifested, and to this we call attention. We. have often been told' that efficiency is not what can secure for an official on the rail,way pprmanency of employment, but a, capability to please the whims and,fancies of certain officials, who have sprung trorn obscurity into,, power with mushroomgrowth rapidity, and reminds us. of the. couplet— Morning insects—in muck begun— Shine most radiant in the evening sun.

We call the attention of Mr W' M Hannay to this case of; Alfred Lawrence. He is accredited with being just and honorable m his treatment of railway officials, and we trust that he. will thoroughly investigate, and do, justice to one whom, we think Las been yictimisedifor somp reason that has. not yet been, made public We shall.make further inquiries into.this matter, and give the result to the public.