Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 15, 1886. ELECTIVE MAGISTRATES.

Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 25, 16 June 1886, Page 2

Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 15, 1886. ELECTIVE MAGISTRATES.

Wk do not suppose tbat thero is the slightest probability of Sir George Grey's proposals for establishing ftn elective magistracy passing iuto law, even though the Government hns most xinwisely expressed itn concurrence in tho vicious principle. It would be a most serious injury to this colony if such a system as tho ono proposed were introduced. Tho present system may not be a perfect one. No doubt tbo temptation to make political appointments to tho Bench is often too btiong to bo resisted by whatever may be the Government in power. Unsuitable men may sometimes be appointed, but on the whole the Commission of tho Peace in this colony is ono which will bear favourable comparison with that of any of tho sister colonies. As a rule, only intelligent, independent, fairly educated and respectable men ever find their way on to tho Bench. An elective system would degrade tho magistracy and give enormous power to an inferior and far less desirable class of men than those at pre-ient entrusted with it. The absolute failure of the system of eloctiye Licensing Benches should prove a wnrainjj against any extension of that system. We aro quite Burc that if the position of a Justice of the Peuco were made elective, very few men really fitted to hold it, would be willing to becomo candidates. Tho beat men would fight shy of it, as the best men now do of so many other positions which arc in the popular gift. Most of those who would aspire to election, and be willing to go through the ordeal of one, would be quite unfit to properly perform the duties of the position. We look with dread to any proposal for tampering -with the administration of justice, and degrading tho character of the Magistracy. If the principle of elective Justices bo right, why should it not be carried fnrtber and the neople be given the right of electing their own Resident Magistrates and Supreme Court Judges? The principle is the same. We are quite sure that outside tbe colony such a chango us Sir George Grey proposes would tell very much against New Zealand. People at Homo would look with distrust on a country whoro tho seats of justice, even in the lowest degree, were filled by popular election, and capitalists would doubt whether property was sufficiently safe and protected in such a country. There are a great many other cogent arguments which, if spaco permitted, wo could urgo against this "fad" of Sir George Grey's, but it is so extremely improbable that tho Legislature will ever seriously countcnanco a proposal of tho kind, that it is not worth while diBCUHHing the mattor any further.