Wanted, a Coroner.

Feilding Star, Volume III, Issue 745, 4 December 1908, Page 2

Wanted, a Coroner.

The present method of importing a Coroner from Palnierston to conduct inquests in Feilding and district is far from satisfactory, and not at all complimentary to this town. Now that the system is simplified and a jury is unnecessary in certain cases — as in the enquiry conducted in Feilding yesterday — the Minister of Justice should do justice to this important centre. Why should enquiries here have to be delayed to suit the convenience of a Palmerstonian ? Any Justice of the Peace can act as a Coroner, but the Minister can appoint a District Coroner who need not be a J.P. And it it* time lie macie such an appointment in Feilding. Danncvirke, which is not nearly as important a centre its Feilding, has a District Coroner of its own, that office having recently been been created, and it is held by a J.P. who is a business man. The Palmerston Coroner has the whole of the Manawatu Country, and a little more, as his domain; and the area is too wide for one man. At any rate, it is a .serious reflection upon the wisdom of the Justice Department that it continues to allow this town to go on under an old-fashioned and unsais- . .ictory system that dates back to the days of lots-of-time, when nothing mattered and nobody was ineonvoniimcod by delays. Times have changed, and the Justice Department should recognise this. We trust the Chamber of Commerce will knock hard and persistently at the Minister's door, until Fcilch'ng gets its own Coroner.