that trivial in its character, had occurred? True, but what might happen in the future was better known in Wellington.
So Mr Justice Stephen arrived in Dunedin in due course, and was awarded a reception befitting the high office which he occupied, and all sought to do him honour. As it was known that in official affairs very little attention would be required, something, consequently, must be found for him to do. The Horticultural Society readily came with its aid, and appointed him president. The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge solicited his aid in opening up some dark features in science or history, which he promised to do, but failed to perform. Twelve months after his appointment he was subjected to the direful necessity of opening the first session of the Supreme Court; but there was neither criminal nor civil business to transact.
A second session of the Court was held three months after the first; but no business was on hand. A third sitting followed, with a similar result, and now matters had come to a terrible pass. Something must be done. So, as His Honor could not get any cases to try, might he not himself become a subject for trial before the inferior judicatory? And of verity he effected it; for in January, 1852, he was arraigned before a bench of magistrates for assault, and was acquitted by a majority of one only, the minority administering to him a severe rebuke, to which His Honor replied, "Could I wait for the tedious and tardy process of the law?" The assaulted was about half the size and weight of the judge; but as a wind-up of the affair, one of the J.P.s, a well-known M.D., challenged His Honor to a duel, as the knight-errant of the lady who had been insulted. In March, 1852, Mr Justice Stephen, and family left Dunedin. In May a proclamation was issued at Wellington abolishing the Supreme Court at Dunedin; yet strange to relate, for the first day of June following a sitting of the Court was announced, to which thirty-six unpaid jurymen were summoned, and attended to find there was no business to transact, and no judge to preside had there been any.
Before quitting for the present the department of the law, it may be stated that the building first used as a Court House in 1848 was the Survey office, near where the Colonial Bank now
