NOVEL STRIKE

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 66, 19 March 1928, Page 8

NOVEL STRIKE

AUSTRALIA AGAIN JUSTICES AND MAGISTRATE (From "The Post's" Representative.) SYDNEY, Bth March. It has been asserted over and over again, with ample justification, too, that Australia is a land of novel strikes. The latest took place in Camberwell, one of the residential suburbs of Melbourne. Annoyed at what they j considered the overbearing conduct of the Police Magistrate who sits at Camberwell once a fortnight, the honorary Justices who customarily sit on the Bench have decided not to do so again with that particular Magistrate. The trouble arose over a recent incident in the Court, when a Police Magistrate' who was hearing a caso told a Justice who was putting questions on his own account that there was only one chairman on the Bench, and that was he. Subsequently the honorary Justices' held a conference and decided upon the action they have now taken. There do not appear to bo any hard-and-fast rules for the conduct of Petty Session Benches in this regard, but it' is the practice of the Police Magistrate when he is present to preside, and as chairman to be the spokesman. It must be manifest, it is pointed out, that a Justice sitting on a Bench cannot inform his mind adequately if etiquette forbids him to ask a necessary question, therefore it followed that reasonablo liberty should be granted to all members of the Bench in that rospect. In Australia Justices do not as a rule regard themselves as muzzled and are always keen to protect their rights. Recently the Justices of New South Wales maintained their right to sit on the Bench, a privilege which is often denied them. The Minister of Justice said that until there was some improvement in the method of appointing Justices he would not agree, as under the present system men were liable to bo appointed who were not possessed of the ability necessary for them to judge their fellow-men. It was then proposed that the Minister should make a selection of the JusI tiees who, in his opinion, were qualified to sit on the Bench. The Minister saw some merit in this proposal but has not as yet adopted it pending further! examination of the subject. It seems that a different system of appointment may be evolved, and if it savours less of political-patronago than the existing system, it will bo welcomed fairly generally. Now Zealand may have a lesson to learn from tho developments in Australia. In tho meantime it can bo said that the Cambcrwell strike will bo less harniI ful to the community than most Australian strikes are.