JUSTICES OF THE PEACE

Grey River Argus, 23 October 1930, Page 3

JUSTICES OF THE PEACE

I Annual Meeting I ( WEST COAST ASSOCIATION. The annual meeting of the Justices I of the Peace Association, was held last evening, in the Court House. Mr ■ \\ . Meldrum, B.AL, presided, and there I were also present: —Messrs W. Parfitt, IF. W. Shallcrass, E. Stratford. J. Ten- } near, W. Ogilvie, P. Hambleton. P. J. I McLean, ,1. Kyle and A Naylor (Secrc- ' tary). | The election of officers resulted:—Patron, Mr Joseph Taylor; Vice-Pat- * rons, Messrs J. O’Brien, ALP., 11. Bignell; President t Mr W. Meldrum, S.M.; Yirc- I'residents, Messrs D. J. Evans , (lli>kit ika ), W. T. She (Westport), T. 11. Lee (Reefton); Council:—Messrs M. J. Fogarty, P. J. Ale Lean, I). Teunent ,J. Kyle, F. W. Shallcrass, J. M. Bunt; Secretary and Treasurer Mr A Nay- . lor; Auditor, Mr I’. J. McLean. The balance sheet showed that the | Association has a credit of £35. < On the President’s suggestion, it was j decided to open an account in the ■Post Office Savings Bank, to be operat- . ed by the Treasurer. It was decided that each financial ■ member of the Association, he sup- ; plied with a copy of the “N.Z. Justices’ 1 Quarterly. ’ ’ Commenting upon the suggestion, that ’’branches be formed at Hokitika, WestIport and Reefton, the President said that the Justices in ’these places did .not seem anxious that such branches .should be formed. - Mr AlcLean moved and Air Parfitt i seconded, that this matter be left with I the President to deal with. ■ Mr Kyle moved that quarterly meetlings be held, and that members of the i legal profession be asked to address ’ the members at these meetings. In ? moving this, Air Kyle said that the I members did not come in contact with I each other sufficiently, and meetings, i as he proposed, would enlighten them I as to their duties. I Mr Naylor said that such quarterly meetings would be within the eonstitu- | tio» of the organisation. I The President remarked that the trouble locally was that there were only a limited number of the legal pro-' fession to give lectures, and that, in ' | view of this, the subjects were liable | to be more or less exhausted. Such I addresses were usually devoted to the I 1 duties of Justices of the Peace. It was decided that it be a recomj men da ti on to the. Council, that quar- * terly meetings be held and that mem- ! bers of the legal profession be asked i to give lectures at these meetings. On Mr McLean’s motion, it was decided that the Secretary be granted an honorarium of £5. I MR. PATTERSON'S ADDRESS. j At the conclusion of the business of | the meeting, Mr A. J. Patterson nd- j dressed the members. • H,is speech was | as follows: — f The position of the Justice of the I Peace is a very ancient and honour-1 able one, but nevertheless from its in-! ception to the present day it has V been the butt of some of the keenest intellects of our race. Shakespeare gave us a caricature of the Justice in the person of “Justice Shallow.’’ However, like marriage that other much belittled institution the position of the Justice remains unshaken an J is accounted an honour by our best citizens. Nevertheless the pomposity and verbosity of many J’s.P, gives cause for ridicule. He is a wise Justice who never discusses the case, the parties or the witnesses, nor ever expressed \ opinions at the street corner or anywhere else until the trial is concluded, and who holds his peace for ever afterwards; who, when the case is finished lets it sink into oblivion; who,/ when on the bench, is very careful not) to speak except to prevent talk nr I gain information; who keeps an open’ mind until he has heard all the evi- { dence and the counsel; who does not f take sides ami mentally condemn the j accused, and then proceed to try him; J who exercises his judgment freely unbiased by preconceived ideas and pr?-| jttdices; who has Large heart and char-, itable mind, and realises that his.. standards may not be the standards of every man, that what is abhorrent to; him may be considered quite permissable in the society of some; who en-

deavours to settle disputes ami bring . about reconciliations; who does not assume a character more pious and holy than any man can possibly have; who ju-lges not by a fixed and absolute standard of right and wrong; bur < rather seeks a balancing of ; achievement with opportunity: who | does justice and loves mercy. Only such a one can really be said to be true to his oath “to do right to all ' . manner of people without fear or favour. affection or ill-will.” > So you see the task of the Justice ' is one that calls forth all that a man has of fortitude or delicacy to perform. It calls for a great deal of common sense combined with a knowledge of the world and of men, tempered uy ;i cautious and generous mind. Finally a Justice should rather err on the side of mere.y than onthat of severity | for then the guilty will feel that he has received the just reward of his det'ds, and men will willingly submit 'to his jurisdiction, knowing that the decision will be fair and equitable. ' To my mind many decisions that have been given have been really too *e- ! vere and have injured the cause tha r | they sought to promote*. Recently a | . certain Magistrate insisted on sending ; a married woman shoplifter to prison. ■ in spite, of recommendations by other : reputabh' persons to thecontrary. lie gave as his reason that last time he had sentenced a person to imprisonment for shoplifting the crime had ceased for a period. The real reason may have been that many people reading the decision may j have been incensed and annoyed with ’ : the firm who prosecuted; the result being that business peoph* preferred not to prosecute rather than suffer from the odium with consequent falling off in trade, that resulted from the hard decision of the bench. Then there is rhe Justice who prides : j himself on his rectitude and abhorrence f of evil but such a man may be merely self-centred and unlovely. His particular separateness may be due to i spiritual pride, fanatical narrowness r>r a morbid outlook, A Magistrate recently was attend- : ing a function held by the Salvation | Army. I n a long speech he deplored j the awful depravity of society, and said that people would. pilfer anything, even to the most trivial article. - , He continued in this strain ad nauscum ■ . until the atmosphere became such that | every man eyed his neighbour suspij ciously. At the end of the function ‘ the Army Captain arose to speak, and , remarked that he had been greatly * impressed by the address given by th? ! Justice; however, he would kindly re- | quest him to remove the hymn hook I from his pocket and leave it on the I seat as it was wanted for another cc- ! casion. Then followed an explanation i

by the Justice that it was his habit always to take his hymn book to church—that it was quite a mistake, etc., etc., but the ordinary folk enjoyed the joke. Finally I wish to make it clear what 1 mean when I say a Justice should judge not by an absolute standard of right and wrong, but rather seek after a balancing of achievement with opportunity, because this is the crux of the whole matter. Tn former days the commission of the offience was everything and the punishment followed. An eye for an eye. a tooth for a tooth. Take the case of Beatrice Ceni whose portrait was’painted by the artist, Guido Beni. “It is a sad, lovely face that looks out from the canvas, and the heroine—said to have been painted by Guido on tin* eve of her beheading—was the central figure of a terrible tragedy which shook Rome at her time. Young and motherless, Beatrice was the daughter of a Roman noble, Francesco Ceni, whose vice and ■vy^ c^ p^ ll( ' ss of every sort, startled even the Rome of his day, which was not easily shocked. Francesco kept his poor daughter shut up in a lonely castle in the Apennines. There ho treated her so barbarously, and. so it is said, with even incestuous violence, that the poor, tortured girl felt her only salvation lay in killing this monstrous father. When sewnteen years old, she managed to have her father murdered by some bravos she hired, and in spite of the horrible nature of the crime, one cannot help felling that it was a ‘good riddance’ of exceedingly ‘bad rub bish.” Her beauty did not save Beatrice from torture nor the axe, but it | is clear that she was driven to do as she did. And her haunting beauty, her dark eyes, saddened by the crimes

i | committed by and against her, still (look out from the canvas as Guido fixed them there in fils day.” | ‘Here you have justice so-called un- | lovely, naked and abhorrent. No at--1 tempt is made to weigh the ■ but with the despotism of a Hilde- ’ brand and rhe cruelty of a Torqucf mada, the judges mete out their scnTake the case of the man found guilty of being on a race course being a prohibited person —it- is proved that he was unemployed—that he had won £23 at the race meeting by having a bet on an outsider. He is fined £lo— a penalty out of all proportion to the offence—a man to be deprived of almost half of his worldly possessions. No doubt £lO is a small sum to a Justice receiving £BOO a year, but he should try to place himself in the accused’s position. Such treatment is almost bound to drive a man in such a position to become an enemy to society. Continuing. Mr Patterson said that it was not the nature of the offence that should be primarily considered, but the motives leading to the committing of it. Punishment should then be meted out in a manner that would benefit both the culprit and the public at large. The day had come when it was recognised that harsh methods uf punishment defeated the ends of punishment. Consideration should be given to the fact that environment determined, to a large extent, the chaping of the mind. | A vote of thanks to Mr Patterson, i was proposed by the President, see[ended by Mr Hambleton, and carried.