OUTSIDE WORK BY MAGISTRATES

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 277, 19 August 1944, Page 8

OUTSIDE WORK BY MAGISTRATES

Question Of Extra Payment

PETITION RECEIVED FAVOURABLY

The status aud remuneration of stipendiary magistrates were discussed in the House of Representatives yesterday morning when the A to L Public Petitions Committee reported on a petition by Mr. A. M. Goulding, S.M., of Wellington, and other magistrates presented earlier in the present session. The petition asked that all be paid the same salary. The committee reebmmended that the petition Im given most favourable consideration by the Government. Mr. Algie (Opposition, Remucra) described the petition as a self-denying ordinance on the part of the petitioning magistrates and a remarkable demonstration of their selflessness. From time to time members of the magistracy were appointed to sit on boards and commissions of inquiry outside their purely magisterial functions. For such extra duties they received a fee or remuneration additional to their emolument as magistrates. The petitioners had pointed out that when magistrates were called on to perform outside work .there was a risk of discrimination,land that this created a feeling in the public mind that one magistrate might be a little more in the favour of the Government Gian another. It was a highly important principle of the judiciary that no member should have anything to hope for.in the way of promotion outside the magisterial function. There was a tendency in some quarters to treat the magistrates as if they were departmental officers. Their position should be similar to that of the judges of the Supreme Court. The magistrates therefore asked in the petition that they should be regarded as part and parcel of the judiciary. The petition had mentioned what the magistracy considered an anomaly in that in the larger cities one magistrate was selected as a senior magistrate with an- extra £lOO a year. The petition asked that all magistrateslie paid the same. Mr. Algie expressed the opinion that the remuneration of magistrates should be increased to compensate them for the extra court work which modern conditions had placed on them. He hoped the Government would attend to that, and also give effect to the prayer of the petition. Other members of the House spoke unanimously in support of the petition. The Attorney-General, Mr. Mason, said the practice of appointing magistrates as chairmen of boards and commissions of inquiry was a very old one, and it was not easy to avoid-. It was a tribute to the high standing of the magistracy in the public esteem that there was such an insistent demand for the services of magistrates outside their work on the Bench. The Minister mentioned that since the presentation of the petition the Government had asked a magistrate to undertake work in circumstances objected to in the petition. The magistrate concerned had expressed diffidence because he felt it might he thought by the public that he was seeking additional work involving extra remuneration. It was only at the reiterated request of the Gbvernment after the express raising of the question that he proceeded with the outside work. Mr. Mason said he would give consideration to the petition to determine to what extent, the practice, objected to could be eliminated or minimized . The chairman of the committee, Mr. Richards (Government, Roskill) thanked the House for its reception of the recommendation.