CARTERTON ART UNION

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 6 June 1913, Page 3

CARTERTON ART UNION

ALLEGED BREACH OF GAMING ■'.'■•. ACT - An application for the issue of a writ of mandamus was heard by Mr Justice Sim at the Supreme Court in Wellington on Wednesday. The parties to tke case were Burnett Murray, police constable, of Cartsrton, plaintiff, and Leonard Grenwell Reid, stipendiary .magistrate, of Carterton, and Elizabeth Howe, of Carterton, defendants. Mr P. S. K. Macassey appeared for the plaintiff, and JNlr S. Menteath for the defendants.

~Mj Maeassey said that on F*'tr\iary Ist an art union had been held at .Carterton, and the article to be disposed of in a raffle was un oil painting of a horse, but the pelfe suggested that what was reaily opposed ef< was a real horse. The police hud an information against M ; >s Howe for a breach of the Gaming Act, 1908. When the case was called before Mr Reid, .counsel raised tfhe point that the magistrate had n» power to hear the information, i<?cause the prosecutor had not given the defendant one month's notice in writing under section 74/>f the Gaining Act. The magistrate upheld this point, and the decision entered in the book was: for want of notice." The question was whether the magistrate could be compelled to hear the case, and counsel contended that a writ of mawiaimis should ba issued, because section' 74 did not apply to such proceedings, as those instituted by the police at Carterton.

Mr Menteath -said that the question for the Court to decide was whether the magistrate had heard and determined the case. If,, after, he had commenced thejieaiing, a question of law was raised and he decided the law erroneously, then the remedy was by appeal. If, however, at ths very initiation of the proceedings he declared,he had no jurisdiction, tlieh the Legislature provided an extraordinary remedy by way of mandamus. He submitted it was clear law that where a remedy exist-' ed by appeal a writ of mandamus could not be issued. A mandamus was a remedy that was only applicable where no other remedy existed. Mr Maoassey said that the magistrate had to try the case on its merits. Where the magistrate declined to 1 adjudicate then the proper feimedy was 1 by mandamus. In the case in question this was. a point preliminary to the hearing of the information, and a mandamus should be isiued., '.- . •', l: -.,v .•■-•-., i . ':..;;'. ■■. i '