EXTENSION OF JUSTICES' WORK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 136, 12 June 1933, Page 6

EXTENSION OF JUSTICES' WORK.

To anyone with any knowledge of Magistrate's Court work the proposal of tho Minister of Justice to encourage justices of the peace presiding moro in court proceedings will come as a. shock. Instead of extending the work in this direction it should bo curtailed; in fact, with over twenty years' experience of court work at Hie back of me, I would say that the practice of allowing justices to sit 011 tho Benel), except when children' or youthful offenders are concerned, should, bo abolished altogether. I have seen a. young man, a first offender, sentenced to six months' imprisonment for taking an article worth 5/6 by mistake. I have heard two justices arguing tho point as to whether the minimum or maximum fine (in this case £1 or £20) should be imposed on a young man who dealt with one of the presiding justices' opposition. There is also a suspicion that in their Inexperience justices have consulted the police as to the penalty which should be imposed. The Minister himself has lived in a country town for many years and must know of the invidious positions in which justices are ofttimes placed, through having to sit on the Bench when men whom they know personally are involved as defendants. The dispensation of justice is work for professional men; not for the butcher, baker |or candlestick maker, OBSERVANT,