Series of Allegations.

On June 4, 1859, a petition by W. S. Greene, James Dunlop, George Goldsmith, Geo. Poulgrain, Robert Newnham, G. E. Read, John Tarr, Richard Horsley, J. Hervey, Joseph Cross, Thos. U'Ren junr., Wm. Tarr, James Mackey, Wm. Brown, J. W. Harris, James Wilson, J. Wyles, Wm. Howard, R. H. U'Ren, Thos, Halbert, Thos. U'Ren senr., Robt. Read. John Edwards, was published in the “H.B. Herald.” It said:—

“That the gentleman holding the office of Resident Magistrate here appears to consider himself more in the light of a Public Prosecutor than an impartial administrator of the law of the Colony, and that he tends to improve his activities as a magistrate by procuring as many cases as possible to be brought before his Court.

“That the Resident Magistrate has on more than one occasion used threats towards some of your petitioners by threatening to turn them off the land on which they are living.

“That the clerk or interpreter often uses leading questions in his examination, thereby obtaining answers not always consistent with the truth. On more than one occasion he has threatened to throw discredit on Native evidence when given in favor of Europeans by telling them (out of Court) they were endeavoring to screen the Europeans. His general conduct is exceedingly mischievous and irritating and having by birth and education nearly all his sympathies on the side of his Native countrymen and little if any with the European population, he is unfit to fulfil his present office in a purely Native district.