WORK NOT EXCESSIVE

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 27 October 1934, Page 9

WORK NOT EXCESSIVE

VISITS BY MAGISTRATE. POSITION AT STRATFORD. Stratford is not as much affected as Hawera by the extension of the magistrate’s district, according to the opinion of a member of the Stratford branch of the Taranaki District Law Society expressed yesterday, when the Hawera complaint was referred to him. The chief difficulty that Stratford experienced was in securing the services of the magistrate for an extra day at Stratford, when there was a rush of work, he said. However, it was certainly too big a district for one man to handle.

The lawyer pointed out that in June of this year there was a rearrangement of the circuits, so that the magistrate had 'to visit in addition to the previous district Hawera and Taumarunui, two days per month being given to each. In that rearrangement, however, the Stratford court days were altered, but the same period was allowed, so that practically no material alteration was made.

During the winter the work at Stratford had not been excessive except on the last few court days, when several cases were adjourned from one day to the next on a number of occasions. The position at Stratford was that if the civil cases were of any length at all it would take two days to hear them, and if xhe magistrate could give a special day occasionally that would be satisfactory.

“The legal profession does not want to see a magistrate working long hours and under pressure,” he said, “because it is not conducive to the best administration of justice. A magistrate must have a certain amount of time to consider his judgments.”