ALTOGETHER WRONG.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9045, 21 March 1908, Page 4

ALTOGETHER WRONG.

Recently we animadverted, upon the unjust penalties imposed in our court upon persons convicted of trivial breaches of the law—penalties which, while being a mere bagatelle to men of means are, comparatively, crushing to men who are in poor circumstances, and which are often excessive whatever the condition of the delinquent. A further illustration of our contention was afforded at the local Magistrate's Court, yesterday morning, when the Borough Ranger brought before the Stipendiary Magistrate three townspeople for allowing cattle to wander at large, and against whom scandalously heavy penalties were imposed for this petty offence. In one case the fine and costs amounted to £1 18s; in another, to £1 13s; and in the third, to £1 9s. This is little short of judicial tyranny, and is calrculated to debar men with families from keeping cows for the purpose of supplying their households with, pure milk. The court costs in< each case amounted to seven, shillings —an exorbitant sum for the issue of a sheet of blue paper. This charge on the part of the Law Department, however, is so fully established by cutsom that litigants never raise a voice against it. It is time, however, that Parliament did. In addition to the "imposition" of this seven shillings, the Magistrate of this district permits solicitors to charge a guinea fee in such trumpery cases. A solicitor might easily earn fifty guineas a day for several days in succession if. say, all owners of unregistered dogs and all! by-law-breaking cyclists in the district were summoned to attend court.in a batch. It is, we understand, within the discretion of the Magistrate to fix a reasonable fee for solicitors appearing in minor cases,, ajid a : guinea is an unreasonable fee. But ' in any case, we would like to know upon what authority the ranger employs a solicitor.- to, support such charges as those undec notice. The officer ought to be competent to conduct them without processional assistance, and we would suggest that he be officially instructed to do so in the future. It may be mentioned that at the same sitting of the court as these cattle-straying cases were heard, five persons were charged with the equally serious offence of riding bicycles, upon the footpaths, but the police, who prosecuted, did not find it essential to employ a solicitor, and consequently the defendants were each saved a guinea costs. In like manner an offendtr against the building by-laws was convicted without the aid of a member of the legal profession. It is high time that some more equitable system was adopted in meting out punishments to offenders aganist the law. The punishment should "fit the crime," as "Poo-Bah" suggests, but it too often overlaps it to an extent which is little short of being cruel. We j commend the points we have noted to ,

the consideration of the Law Department on the one hand, and the civic authorities on the other.