LOKPING-CHANG ON LITIGATION.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 1918, 18 February 1885, Page 2

LOKPING-CHANG ON LITIGATION.

Hia Excellency Lok Ping-chang, Governor of Szechuon and President of one of the Six Boards, advising the people to cease litigation and avoid squabbling, proclaims with urgent mouth and earnest heartße it known unto you that from love of litigation coraeß that wherewith glib-tongue,d men. ruin families; my people all have neither much nor little to do therewith 1 Those who agitate and clamour for- an indictment do not know the bitterness thereof; It is truly hard to straighten a crooked finger. The pro-, verb says, Though we hunger to death we should not become thieves; though we are harrassed to death we should not gd to law. Also ';He who watches for the police has a tiger oil level ground.' You whid wish to go to law, far off for a distance'of 800 miles and near for a distance of 50 miles trouble and .disturb the highways,, you waste'timo arid lose business".' If you■ wish to present a petition, firstyou want money for the model form, then the copyist's fee, the tax-coilecter's fee, the registrar's fee for entering your name, and the secretary's fee; and then perhaps the petition is not in exact form. It it is exact, it is advantageous to pay money to the Court-recorder, 'grass-shoe money,' and a second fee to tlie copyists, and then perhaps the case will not be tried. If it is tried, it-is well to pay the courtrecorder a supplementary fee, the courtmarshal's fee, money for a banquet (to police), money for being introduced to the court, , interpreter's fee, money to ensure .correot 'interpretation, witnesses' expenses the charges of the exortionate police, and the regulation fees. If the hearing judge i§ yighfc-principled, you need to make a : pmtijlatofy present; if lie is not rightM M to bribe him. Whjle ihe judge js }}naqgide i d''a{)(jut ypur case,' all' these payment!} njjjsf bo' made 9y?rjr day," Whenever you seethemagistrse!f' .o}erk| ypu have "'to keep rijquthing' sir 1 '; lyljei} jrpu meet tlje police yoi} have to keep aayii)g ' uncle, uncleand tluis yqu debase yourself and go about with degraded mien »nd fawning voiqe, If this kmd of conduct were exhibited in your treatment of and intercourse with friends and relatives; if these payments were used in treating your father and mother, in dealing with neighbors, in pacifying follow 1 -Y'Nawra—then who would not be at peaoe 1 what afiiurs woSM then l)e unsettled 1 So, who go clamoring for litigation, a little of which means the waste of wealth, and a deal t!)q riiin of families and loss of life 11, the President of one of the Six Boards, truly pity andgrieve for you all, and proclaim this, that in every province, every department, and every village, the multitudes of the people may j)B fully acquainted therewith, After this proclamation 1 , ggt rid of robbers, and jbh'oso wlio wj'uld tako may be laid against suoh at any time. But in the matters of lands ana fields, matrimonial contracts, unpaid accounts, ai)d ill words—these may be trusted to the gentry to di«Q«s'B 'mi settle, Under.no circumstances enter upon the gsqat bitterness' of litigation—the putting up with one hour's worry'will prevent a hundred, dayg pf sorrow. You, fathers, ought to wajh yoijr soijs; sjfief brothers ought to teaph the youngerrelative# and friends ought to stimulate one another. ' It will not harm if you fake what I,' President of haye • proclaimed, copy it out majmjyi'ani in each village, so as fo'catch the' eyes and alarm the heart, tip anl clq !'fjp aiulqg 1'!'"'"