JUSTICES OF THE PEACE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XII, Issue 4300, 25 August 1875, Page 3

JUSTICES OF THE PEACE.

To the Editor of the Hep.AID. Sin, —Your first local paragraph in to-day's paper respecting the attendance of J.P.s at the Police Couii requires correction and comment, as it is calculated to convey tho impression that an influential body of gentlemen are wilfully neglecting a known and recognised duty. Even if it were so, I think the J.P.s of Auckland to a certain extent justified after the treatment certain of their number experienced a short time ago, and in the face of the frequent and covert attacks upon them by the local newspapers under the familiar lieadiug of "Justices' Justice." But such is not the case; the Auckland magistrates attend to their police duties remarkably well, and better than is usual in colonial towns. Yesterday, I was at the Police Court, by arrangement, at 10.30 o'clock, and, for reasons with which I think I am acquainted, Mr. Marshall, who for several Mondays past has sat with me, was not there. It was, consequently, necessary to send for another magistrate, and I must do Mr. Dargaville the justice to say, that so far from occasioning any delay, he attended immediately when applied to, and the delay occasioned was barely twenty minutes. But it is necessary to bear in mind that it is not every magistrate that can turn out of his counting-house or office at a moment's notice whenever the Clerk of the Court may flnd it necessary to obtain a J.P», and I-'lo Hot-look upon them as compelled, either legally or morally, to attend unless convenient and agreeable to them. I think, in the absence of a stipendiary magistrate, that it 'would be well for the local justices to take a day once a week or once a fortnight at the Court; and, for myself, I have arranged to attend, every Monday morning unless I send notice to the Clerk of the Court to the ...but I acknowledge no authority to requirQ 'such attendance from me.—l am, &c., ' "" Albert Beethaw, August 24, 1875.