SUPREME COURT JUDGES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12280, 26 May 1903, Page 5

SUPREME COURT JUDGES.

THEIR SALARIES AND RETIRING AGE.

[BY TELEGRAPH. — OWS COREESrOXDJvNT.] Christchurch, Monday. CoiiMTv.VTixo on the scenes in Court during the hearing of tHe recent alleged libel case in Auckland, the Press says : "We hope, seeing that a new Parliament will meet in a few weeks, that the position of the Supreme Court judges in this colony will be taken into serious consideration. At all costs we must maintain the high standard of the Supreme Court Bench. To ensure this Lite first essential is that the salaries of the judges should be raised to something like an adequate amount. Their pay now is the same as it was in 1862, when the colony was almost in its infancy. Then Ministers were paid £600 a year. Now the Premier receives £1650 a year, a free, furnished house, worth £300, and £250 from the Assets Board to say nothing of travelling expenses. It cannot be alleged that the work of the judges has become any lighter, for there were five judges" in 1869, and there are five judges now. We do not think it would be possible to lay down any age limit at which a judge ought to retire. Chief Baron Kelly sat on the Bench till lie was past 90, and his intellect was apparently as keen as ever, and Lord Brampton, at 87, is mentally as vigorous and capable as many men of 60. Still it should be mad© easy, rather than difficult, for a judge to retire wher he is pas'fc his usefulness. At the present time, with salaries so low, and only a fractional portion of such salaries payable as retiring allowance, there is every inducement to a judge to hang on to his oflice as long as possible. We trust that the new Parliament will take this much-needed reform in hand, or the time cannot be far distant when a serious deterioration in the standard j of our Supreme Court will have to be deI plored. "