AN UNSEEMLY SQUABBLE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 2111, 3 October 1885, Page 2

AN UNSEEMLY SQUABBLE.

An unseemly squabble lias been going on for some time past between Judge Ward and Mr M'Cuuocii.R.M,, at Invercargill. If rumoi speaks correctly, there has been bad blood between them for some time past, but the public did not know anything of it. Quite recently, however, Judge Waud thought he had an opportunity to annihilate Mr M'Oullocii, A bankrupt named Henery, having been examined by the Judge, the latter thought it advisable to order a prosecution, and Henkry was brought up before Mr M'Culloch-. When the depositions, which were made by the accused in the Bankruptcy Court, were about to be put in as evidence, the Magistrate very properly refused to receive them, and there being, in his opinion, nothing else to support the charge, he as properly dismissed the case. This was too much for the Judge, who took it upon himself to mention the matter in his own Court, when he condemned the action of the Magistrate in the most unmeasured terms, Wedo notknow whether ajudge has an acknowledged right to comment upon the action of an officer in another Court, but whether he has the right or not, if he makes comments of the kind, the officer concerned certainly has an equal right to speak, And Mr McCollook did speak, and made a good defence. He, however, went out of his way, when he accused Judge Waud with being the author of an anonimous letter which appeared in a Dunedin paper, Mr McOulloch has laid the case before the Minister of Justice, and received an assurance that he is held free from blame with regard to Henery's case, but we notice that the Judge and Magistrate still carry on their unseemly warfare from their respective benches. The Minister of Justice has the power to put a stop to it, and the sooner lie exerciser it the better will it be,