CONGESTED COURTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19214, 31 December 1925, Page 11

CONGESTED COURTS.

POLICE AND CIVIL CASES. SEPARATION ADVOCATED. RAPID GROWTH OF AUCKLAND. There whs a record number of cases in the Auckland Police and Magistrate's Courts during the past year, and almost daily the three available Courtrooms have been fully occupied. From the point of view of cases it is called upon to decide the Magistrate s Court is busier than either the Supreme Court or Police Court. The number of plaints issued for the year was 12,894, an increase of 431 compared with 1924. With (ho growth of the city the time has gone when all cases could be disposed of on two mornings a week, with one or two special fixtures. There is not a day of the week from Monday to Friday, when civil cases do not come up for hearing. Judgment summonses show a marked increase. The number was 2495, compared with 2053 in 1924, and 1759 in 1923. Distress warrants issued numbered 2117, compared with 2495 in J. 924. "The rapid growth of Auckland in the past few years has shown clearly the necessity for the establishment of the Magistrate's Court as a separate entity, an authority stated yesterday. lhe functions of this Court are totally dissimilar in every respect from those of the Police Court, and as Auckland develops a cleavage between the two is sure to come. It is only a question of time, but 1 think the great increase in civil business and the stress under which the Auckland magistrates are working in handling sometimes police and sometimes civil cases, fully justifies an immediate change."