NEW LAW COURTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 171, 21 July 1936, Page 15

NEW LAW COURTS.

NEEDS OF SYDNEY. BUILDING TO COST £250,000. NEARLY FORTY TRIBUNALS. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, July 15. It would be rash to affirm that the new Law Courts for which Sydney has been waiting so long are to be constructed on the site of the old Mint building in Macquarie Street, for the scheme has been adopted and rejected half a dozen times in succession, and nobody yet knows with certainty what the Government intends to do about it. It seems to be generally agreed that in this section of Macquarie Street — there or thereabouts —a building or block of buildings—is to be erected at a cost of at least £200,000, where all the numerous courts that are now scattered about this part of Sydney will at last be gathered together. When one learns that there are close 011 40 ''full - ' courts in Sydney one begins to realise why the judiciary and the legal profession have been so persistent in their demands for this change. Apart from 37 courts which are legally entitled to bear that honourable name, we have to include, under some circumstances, as legal tribunals the Board of Marine Inquiry, the Mining Warden, the Conciliation Commissioner, the Customs, the Tariff Board and the Land Board, and they are for the most part scattered widely in different directions. ,Waste of Time. A certain amount of concentration has already been attempted, but it has rather intensified the general confusion than helped to clear it up. There are 10 courts in the Supreme Court building in King Street, 10 more in the Queen's Square group a hundred yards away, one court in Chancery Square, six courts at tho Central Police Court a mile off, between George and Pitt Streets, and four more another mile further on at Darlinghurst. And these various tribunals are numbered on an exasperating plan whieli seems to have been devised for tho special purpose of compelling everybody to spend the maximum amount of time in trying to discover any one of them.

"It is no uncommon thing," writes a contributor to the "Sun" this week, "to find a litigant, witness or juror wandering through the Queen's Square maze looking for ' No. 1 Court,' blissfully ignorant of the fact that there are at times in that block alone three ' No. 1 ' Courts—Causes, District and Industrial— \Vhilo scattered through the city No. 1 abounds in High Court, Workers' Compensation, Causes, Traffic, Quarter Sessions and Central Police Court.", But the numbers and their repetition are not the only source of confusion. There; is always a romantic uncertainty about the venue of-any given court, for it is never safe to assume that a court will be held in the locality with which its name is associated. For instance, a case is listed for the Supreme Court■ T-i it does not necessarily follow tiiat.it* will'be held in the Supreme Court properly so called in King Street, The case might be held in Queen's Square in the Registrar-General's building—dignified in the law list as "Chancery Square" or in one of the four courts at Darlinghurst. v. " Almost Anywhere." Again it is practically impossible to find the Court of Quarter Sessions until the judge begins to sit. Usually Quater Sessions are held at Darlinghurst, but Quarter Sessions appeals come before a judge sitting in a district court, and district courts; when a "session rush" is; on, may, sit almost anywhere. A few weeks ago two district courts were being held at the same time in the District Court Building, one in N°- HI- Arbitration Court, one in the Workers' Compensation Court, and one at Darlinghurst. Here is a brief description of our judiciary landscape starting from the harbour waterfront. In George Street North there is the Coroner's Court, next on the south-east the other side of Circular Quay, there is the old Water Police Court, \yhich now also houses two or more traffic courts. In the heart of the city there is the Federal/ Bank; ruptcy Court in the Commonwealth Bank, the Workers' Compensation Court ill the Savings Bank, and the Conciliation Commission rooms in Phillip. Street. All these, of course, are far removed and quite distinct from the two main blocks of courts in King Street and Queen's Square. It should be added that nearly all the courts and other places where cases are heard and judges preside are small, badly equipped and inconvenient rooms, where.dust, draughts and the noise of traffic in the streets outside constantly inconvenience the inmates, and distract the attention of those engaged in administering the law. ' Tho only exceptions, strangely enough aro the Workers' Compensation Commission rooms and the Federal Bankruptcy Court rooms in the two banks; which are almost luxurious in their equipment. The conditions of the other courts, to say nothing of their wide dispersal, fully justifies the determination of the Government to house them all in one central and appropriately dignified edifice. Whether the new Law Courts should be set up on the old Mint site or even in Macquarie Street—that is another question on which the Government, judges and lawyers, architects and town planners have long been at variance, nor does there seem much prospcct that they will reach anything like a unanimous decision.