REPREHENSIBLE PRACTICE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13761, 28 May 1908, Page 4

REPREHENSIBLE PRACTICE.

The plain speaking of Mr. Kettle in the Auckland Police Court, upon a practice of soliciting the . attendance of justices of the peace to adjudicate upon particular cases, was entirely called for. That a justice of the peace should have any official connection whatever with a case in which he has a personal or solicited interest is inimical to the administration of justice, and the very natural cause of grave public scandal, -it, cannot be too strongly reprobated, and should be regarded as a dishonourable act, and an unpardonable offence. While the list of Justices of the Peace contains the names of many good and esteemed citizens, it is to be regretted that it. is not wholly composed of those who are universally acknowledged as being deserving of public confidence. In any case, the rigid application of the formal methods provided by the lav.-, under which justices sit on the Bench, in an order regulated by the Court, would remove, the more prominent evils which Mr. Kettle denounced. The only really effective remedy, however, is to dispense with the services of all justices of the peace on the Police Court Benches of the leading centres, where stipendiary magistrates should be always available, and to confine their judicial sphere to those small towns and country districts where they have still ample scope for good public work. It is largely because they are no longer necessary as magistrates in our city life that the office o( justice of the peace is, in cities, falling in public estimation, despite the sterling merits of many who accept appointment.