MR McLACHLAN, S.M., TO MAKE ONE MORE WEST COAST VISIT

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 August 1948, Page 4

MR McLACHLAN, S.M., TO MAKE ONE MORE WEST COAST VISIT

Mr A. A. McLachlan, S.M., who has been transferred from Timaru to Wellington, will conduct his last sittings of the Magistrate’s Court on the West Coast circuit early next month. For the past four years Mr McLachlan has presided at sittings on the West Coast almost continuously, travelling for this purpose Irom Christchurch and, more recently, Umaru. The first court sitting which Mr McLachlan will conduct ,in Wellington, under his new appointment, will be on August 31, but he will return to Greymouth in the following week, for a brief visit. He will preside for the last time at the Police Court sitting at Greymouth on September G and on the following day. at Hokitika he will complete his duties as chairman of the Westland Licensing Committee and will also tonducl a sitting of the Police Court.

In the meantime, the West Coast circuit will continue to be “worked” by a Christchurch magistrate, but it is considered likely that the matter will be reviewed in the near future, in the light of the possibility that there will be an increase of 25 per cent, on the work of magistrates under the recent Magistrate’s Court Act. It is considered to be likely that, in the near future, there will be a return to the system of appointing a resident magistrate on the West. Coast. The need for a resident magistrate has been fell on numerous occasions and representations on the subject have been made by the legal profession and others involved in the administration of justice.