Manawatu Evening Standard. Circulation, 3,500 Copies Daily TUESDAY, JUNE 9, 1906. THE JUDICIARY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 8603, 9 June 1908, Page 4

Manawatu Evening Standard. Circulation, 3,500 Copies Daily TUESDAY, JUNE 9, 1906. THE JUDICIARY.

Once again complaints are raised that the work of the Supreme Court is. getting beyond the power of the Judges to cope with and various proposals are made with a view to helping the judiciary to keep pace with the demand for litigation. One thing is certain and that is that as settlement and development progresses the work of the Courts will increase proportionately. The natural concomitant of such a growth ought to be a gradual strengthening of the Supreme Court Bench to deal with the extra work. But such a strengthening has not taken place in the ratio that it should have done. A comparison with the state of things in 1864 will best illustrate the point. Then the population of the colony was 172,000, the revenue £619 1 000, and there were five Judges of the Supreme Court. Now the population is just under a million, the revenue is over seven mill cms and the Supreme Court Bench numbers six, excluding the Judge of the Arbitration Court. The expenses of the Supreme Court in 1864 were £13.200, and now they are a little over £10.000. It will thus be seen that New Zealand is indeed getting cheap justice, but, it is to be feared, at the cost of the health of judges, the patience of litigants and in the efficiency of the Court. In this connection a remark made by the Chief Justice in Palmerston some years ago may be recalled. His Honor contrasted the speedy dispensation of justice in New Zealand with

the "law's delays" in America, and attributed not a little of the rampant lawlessness in the latter country to the protracted trials of accused persons and civil suits. This view is worthy of consideration in connection with the demand for more frequent sessions of the Court in the provinces. The judiciary must be greatly augmented and the matter is so important that it deserves the early attention of Government.