The Petition for the Removal of the R.M.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3582, 19 June 1880, Page 2

The Petition for the Removal of the R.M.

The following is an abstract of the petition for the removal of Mr Kenrick, which has been hawked about for some time. There are, we understand, two petitions—one to the Minister of Justice, a resume of which we give, and the other to the House of Representatives. The petition is being promulgated by a gentleman named Sandy Hanlon, and the manner of obtaining signatures to it shows the carefulness with which it is circulated, and the glaring deceit nrectised in getting it signed. It will be remembered that at the present time a petition i 3 being circulated for signature for the reseating of Sir George Grey for Christchurch, and the unseating of Mr Richardson. Sandy has made a good thing out of this, and uses it to gain names for the present petition. He carries a copy of the petition in his pocket and never brings it out unless Bure of obtaining a signature. He goes up to a gentleman, and with the utmost serenity of demeanour, asks him if he is " on the electoral, roll." The gentleman referred to, being aware of the petition in connection with Sir George Grey, and being deceived by the suaviter in modo of the applicant, replies " Yes; " "Then," says the hawking collector, " put your signature to this petition." The gentleman takes hold of it, but the wary Sandy fearful of having its purport disclosed says, "Oh never mind reading it, it is too long to read, 1' and so obtains the signature of the unwary elector. This is the mode in which the petition has been circulated, and a more deceitful one could not have been adopted. We understand that a legal gentleman intimately connected with the petition expressed a wish " That he could put things right with Kenrick, but he couldn't see his way to do it." We append the reasons given in the petition for the removal of Mr Kenrick, and leave the public to judge as to the worth of the grounds of complaint:—

To the Honorable the Minister of Justice—

We, the undersigned, inhabitants of the Thames, do beseech and pray that you will remove our present Besident Magistrate from his position, on the, following grounds :— That he tried to deprive the Inspector of Miues of the Office of Inspector of Coal Mines.

That he tried to deprive the Inspector of Miners' Bights of the office of Inspector of Miners' Bights.

That he attempted to remove the Coroner from his office of coroner.

That he commented on the way certain professional gentlemen conducted their cases in Court.

That he frequently left his office at one o'clock, and did not again return, much to the inconvenience of the public. That he held eccentric views with regard to the licensing question. That he was not sufficiently well acquainted with legal knowledge to adjudicate. (The cases of Roberta v. Short, Greenrille v. Mann, and of a woman at Coromandel for sly grog selling, were men* tioned in support of this statement.) That in case of the removal of the 8.M., only a professional man should be appointed as Besident Magistrate.

That the present Magistrate has a great lack of legal knowledge.

That the present B.M. said that a gentleman who had been made a J.P. had no right to be a Justice of the Peace, and that Mr Kenrick had endeavored to remove him from the Commission.

The above roll, as will be seen, is on behalf of Mr G. N. Brassey. Tue cases referred to are all those in which he has appeared unsuccessfully, and the allusions to the coroner and the next Besident Magistrate clearly point to him. The above is the main grounds for the petition, and we leave it to our readers for their approval or condemnation. An erratic correspondent sends U3 the following strophe a la Pinafore—

" And this is the petition Made 'gainst the ujiper crust By one of low condition."