WOMEN JUSTICES

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 313, 30 September 1926, Page 3

WOMEN JUSTICES

ACT IN OPERATION c NOMINATIONS BEING RECEIVED Legislation passed by Parliament last session gave women, for the first time in the Dominion’s history, the right of appointment to the Commission of the Peace. It was a clause of only'two lines and a half that found inclusion in an amending Bill, but it was sufficient .to lower the time-hon-oured barrier, and, incidentally, to silence a political cry familiar for many years. The law draftsman put it this wav: “A woman shall not be disqualified by sex or marriage from being appointed to be. or, from being, bv virtue of her holding any office, a Justice of the Peace ” In rcplv to a question on the subject vesterdav, the Minister of Justice (Hon. F'j. Rolleston) stated that already the new provision was being availed of, quite a number of nominations having been received bv the Justice Department on behalf of women throughout New Zealand. Later on the applications, which were made in the same manner as. those for men justices would be considered by Cabinet, 1 and finally the appointments would be gazetted. U le . Minister was not in a position to indicate when the initial list would make its appearance. The appointments, he said, would be announced as soon as was practicable. Mr. Rolleston added that the Government anticipated that the operation of the new clause of the Act would produce useful results. There was nothing new about the experiment; there had been women justices for vears in Bugland, and the results there had been successful. New Zealand virtually admitted the qualification of women holding that office by the enactment which enabled women to take their place beside a Magistrate in the Child Welfare Courts.