Untitled

West Coast Times, Issue 307, 17 September 1866, Page 2

Ma Warden Scha.w is a gentleman who exercises very anomalous functions, and does so, as a rule, very arbitrarily. We fear he has been encouraged in the eccentricity of his decisions, by the hitherto neglect of the press to watch and criticise his proceedings. From innumerable quarters lately reports have reached us of small despotism exercised by this gentleman, over the suitors who have had the misfortune of being compelled to resort to his court. So long as his 'judgment?, however arbitrary, were not in direct violation of the letter of the law, some difficulty might be felt in making comments, on them. He was in a position to say — " lam the judge. Such is my reading of the la\y ; such my estimate of the facts. If parties are dissatisfied with my decisions, they hdxe open to them the right of appeal.' 1 Mr Schaw has at length, however, gone very far beyond giving such an interpretation of -the law, and of <it£ bearing upon the Gases brought before him, as might give rise -to a difference of opinion as to the soundness of his judgments. He has, /in a manner most wanton and offensive, violated the very letter, and set asido the express and obvious intent, of the law, which he is boilhd by his official t»bb'gations to carry out in its integrity, however foolish he may think the people who made ifc. lie has done, in his petty omnipotence, what no Judge of the Supreme Court would dare tb do. He has treated the law as a dead letter, and from his judicial seat presumed to disobey its strict requirements. If he has clone this in a fit of spleen, he has proved his unfitness for the office he holds ; if heihas done it from a constitutional incapacity to the Queen's English, as embodied in a legislative enactment, he has equally shewn sufficient reason why he should cease to exercise his present large powers. Mr Schaw belongs to a. class of small officials, against whose caprices and lapses the legislature tas thought fit to afford the public special protection. Amongst other guarantees, against acts of official injustice, the jury system has been established, and the 'framers of the Goldfields' Regulations, whilst creating the anomalous class of officers called Wardens, were fully alive to the necessity of checking their eccentric proclivities, by throwing the shield of the jury-system over suitors in their Courts. Mr Warden Schaw has, by his sovereign authority, taken upon himself tp repeal some half-dozen clauses of the Regulations, in order to override the verdict of a jury that obstinately refused to look at the through his spectacles. • We are net going to discuss the merits of the suit between Messrs Turner and Clarke. We' b.ave nothing to do with them. Mr Schaw had nothing to do with them, beypnd putting the law 1 of the case before his assessors.' No one had anything to do with them, 1 except? the jury who were empaneled according to law, and sworn to give a true deliverance upon the issue of fact before them. Further, we have nothing to do with any personal considerations touching the four gentlemen who, were sworn as assessors. It is a fact that Messrs Hungerford, Yewcrs, Charles Williams, and Harris, are citizens of high respectability and repute. But it is not the material fact.' The material fact is, that they were summoned to serve as assessors ; that they were sworn by*Mr Warden Schaw to give a verdict upon the issue ; and that the adjudication on the case thereupon passed out of liis hands, i We do not care even to comment on the t fact, that his treatment of the jury was vexatious, and his deineanoi"' to them insulting. We content ourselves with stating that the course he took was'a clear and distinct violation of the law, of which he was officially the minister. That the jury were duly-ompaueled and sworn, is sufficient evidence that all the legal preliminaries had been complied with. That Mr Schaw remitted the case to them, is sufficient proof that at that stage of the proceedings he recognised and admitted their legal competency. Indeed, the letter of the Regulations allowed him no option. To, refuse to receive and record their verdict was an evasion of the law, therefore, for which not even a colorable excuse can be suggested. * Clause 22 of the Regulations provides that either party to a suit may, before, evidence is taken, " move thsit the cause be tried with the assistance of assessors or juror*." Clause 23 states that " the judge sljall be the solo judge,

'unless ho think fit to take the assistance of assessors or jurors — or unless either of the parties shall move that the complaint be tried by assessors or jurors,' and shall pay into court the cost for the summoning and-attendance of the assessors' or jurors." Clauses 24 to 34 provide for* summoning and empanneling jurors, and for the four empanneled being duly " sworn to give their verdict in the cause to be brought before them." Clause 35 declares "judgment shall be entered up in pursuance of the verdict of the majority." We quote the following tw o clauses verbatim, as they appear printed in the official copy of the regulations :—: —

36. Every judgment entered up in pursuance of the verdict of a jury, shall have the same force and effect as jf such judgment were entered iv pursuance of the' determination of the judgment of the Court alone., 37. A minute of every decision shall be entered by the judge, in a book to be kept for that purpose, and shall be signed by the persons, whether assessors or jurors, who concur in making such decision, and no formal or,der shall be necessary, and a copy of such minute shall, on demand, be given to any of the parties interested therein. ' In the case which has elicited these observations, the jury were duly sworn ;' the issue was duly tried ; " the verdict was duly brought into Qourt. Every legal formality was observed. But Mr Warden Schaw peremptorily refused to receive and " enter up 'the judgment," and told the suitor against whose claim the assessors had unanimously pronounced, that the Court awarded a verdict in his favor. This is Warden's law — or rather Warden's violation of law — on the West Coast. Surely such a monstrous case will not be allowed to rest here.