NEW COURTHOUSE

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 38, 13 August 1930, Page 3

NEW COURTHOUSE

UPPER HUTT'S PROGRESS

THE BUILDING OPENED

Upper Hutt's new courthouse was opened this morning before a laTg« gathering of the public and the legal profession. The building.is a handsome concrete one, standing well;back.from the main Hutt road, near : the centre of the town. In comparison with the old courthouse it is commodious in" the extreme. Besides the courtroom proper the building contains a public office, magistrate's room, and waiting room. The furnishings throughout are in rimu.

The Mayor (Mr. Bobertson, J.P.), oa behalf of the Upper Hutt Borough Council and the local justices, welcomed the Magistrate, members of the Bar, and local constables to their new quarters. In 1916, he said, the Minister,of Justice had acquired the land for -the Court, and frequent representations by the Borough Council had at last secured the building. They had had the unique experience of a Minister poking his stick through the old courthoiise, and saying that it would not lend dignity, to a justice, let alone a magistrate. The building of the new courthouse was a fitting climax to the interest taken in the district by Sir Thomas Wilford. He asked Mr. W. H. Woodward, S.M., to convey to the Justice Department the hearty appreciation of the borough for providing the building.

In a short speech, the senior Justice of the Peace, Mr. P. D. Davis, traced the history of the council's efforts to secure the new building.

Mr. B. 11. Webb spoke on behalf of the legal practitioners. He congratulated the borough on having acquired such a handsome addition to its buildings as the present Courthouse.

Mr. Woodward added his felicitations to those already given, and promised to convey to the Justice Department the borough's appreciation. That ths council had got a new building, he thought, was largely due to its own. efforts, and to the goodwill of Sir Thomas "Wilford.