AND 60LDFIELD3 REPORTER & ADVERTISER THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1873 " MEASURES. NOT MEN."

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 293, 11 September 1873, Page 4

AND 60LDFIELD3 REPORTER & ADVERTISER THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1873 " MEASURES. NOT MEN."

Oub daily contemporary the "Guardian" made a fair start in leading matter — indeed, since its birth it may be said to have been g?eat in leading articles. Four or five articles each day, to the exclusion of more interesting matter, were hardly sufficient to demonstrate to the Dunedin public that a great luminary had arisen in their midst. As might be expected, the round of legitimate subjects is getting exhausted, and the " Guardian ** is quieting- down to the conventional journalistic leader. In the issue of that journal of Monday last, the appropriation of the sum of £500 for a gs^X at lia\wen.Q6 & m,a.d£ the hajadte

for an article upon " the maintenance of a number of small gaols throughout the country." It is not oar intention at present to discuss the question involved in the article, but we must pass a few words of comment upon its two introductory paragraphs. The " Guardian " says that Lawrence " clamored for a sitting of tbe Supreme Court, and unluckily it was gratified in this whim. No other seems to have come of tbe indulgence except that the public were entertained with the solemn farce." Had the writer of this article tried his best to embody the largest amount of error in the fewest possible words, he could not have succeeded better in the effort than he has done. It is to be regretted that a journal professing to take a leading part in the affairs of the province should show such a strong bias. The quotation we have made is utterly devoid of truth ; and while it may suit the centralising policy of some Dunedin people, it will not bear the scrutiny of those who are acquainted with the subject. We most emphatically deny | that Lawrence ever made any " clamor " whatever for a sittings of the Supreme ! Court. If we are not mistaken, his Honor Mr. Justice Chapman, being firmly convinced of the many^ advantages that would accrue to the public therefrom, strongly recommended that a periodical sittings oi the Court should be held in Lawrence on account of its central position ; and, so far as we are aware, the establishment of that Con has fully realised his Honor'B anticipations. Then as regards the other statement made, that " no other good, came of the indulgence except that the public were tertained with tbe solemn farce," a grlater perversion of the truth it has not been our lot to meet with. We appeal to the jury who, in the Blue Spur case, were cooped up in their box for 17 days — the longest mining case, we believe, on record in New Zealand — whether they considered it a solemn farco ; we appeal to the learned counsel, whose eloquence was so unusually taxed, if it. was to them a solemn farce , we r. ( >- peal to the thirty-five witnesses who had to exercise more than ordinary patience, and lose so much of their valuable time, if they considered it a solemn farce ; and we may be certain the party in the case, who was the o^her day presented with a bill of costs amounting to £2000, does not consider it a solemn farce, but rather a stern reality. There can be no doubt that, owing to the great Blue Spur case being heard Lawrence instead of Dunedin, the latter town sustained a lose of a few hundred pounds; but the saving to the litigants as well as the witnesses was a consideration of far greater moment in the interests of justice and public policy. We have no doubt the saving to the countrj in criminal cases will be as strongly demonstrated as it has been to private individuals in the 3as» civil case, now that the up-country magistrates have received instructions to prisoners for trial to Lawrence.