MORE USE OF JUSTICES

Hawera Star, Volume LIII, 9 June 1933, Page 9

MORE USE OF JUSTICES

REORGANISATION OF COURTS CRITICISM AND APPREHENSION FORMER MAGISTRATE’S VIEWS. WOULD HAMPER, NOT HELP.

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

AUCKLAND, June 9. The Justice Minister’s proposal to reorganise the Magistrate’s Courts is viewed with considerable apprehension and is freely criticised in Auckland. A former magistrate said that if the scope of the work of Justices of the Peace were widened there would undoubtedly be a stream of appeal against their decisions, and thus the work of courst would be complicated instead of assisted.

A prominent lawyer described the Minister’s scheme as a foolish proposition. “It shows the danger,’’ he fiud, “of allowing the administrations of the Justice Department to pass from the Ivand-s of legal practitioners to inexperienced laymen as the present Minister is.” He added that the Justices .of the Peace appointments were usually m the nature of a political reward without regard for aptitude. There had been some good justices in the courts, but they are the exception rather than the rule.