JUSTICES OF THE PEACE.

Hawera Star, Volume LIII, 10 June 1933, Page 4

JUSTICES OF THE PEACE.

The hint of a re-o.rgamsation of the Magistrate’s Court with a view to making greater use on the Bench of the services of justices of the peace has been so uniformly condemned already by members of the legal profession that it is very, improbable that the Minister of Justice will carry this idea much further. The statements condemning the suggestions made by leading lawyers in Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin are fair and adequate. Justices of the peace perform' useful work for society at. present, but if any alteration is necessary in the organisation of the court, it is in the direction ot' restricting the use of their services on the Bench, not increasing them. Apart from members of the legal profession and other officers of the court/ newspapermen have a more intimate knowledge of court, proceedings than any othcr section of the community; it will be surprising if the protest already made by individual members of the legal profession is not unanimously endorsed by every newspaper in the Dominion. The sphere of usefulness of the justice of the peace is definitely limited on the Bench. In provincial towns these limits are usually well: observed, but in the. metropolitan centres the weight of court business has somelimes resulted in justices being called to the aid of overworked magistrates upon cases which, in fairness to the parties concerned, and to the justices themselves, should have been heard by no one other than a stipendiary inagi's-

t.rate. The Hon. J. G. Cobbe 'lias not revealed the reasons actuating him in •his inquiry into the possibilities of making more use of justices. If his motive be “economy” lie is making a sad mistake. This country is not yet in such desperate straits that it has to economise in the quality of justice dispensed by its courts. More probably, however, the Auckland lawyer who criticises the Minister on the grounds that he is “an inexperienced layman” is nearer the truth; were Mr Cobbe a legal practitioner he would never have entertained this idea. It is unlikely, however, that, he will not prove amenable to expert opinion.