MAGISTRATE'S POWERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20384, 12 October 1929, Page 14

MAGISTRATE'S POWERS.

MAINTENANCE ORDER CASES.

WRIT OF MANDAMUS SOUGHT.

An application for a writ of mandamus against. Mr. 0. N. Morris, S.M., of Whangarei, was made in the Supreme Court yesterday, before Mr. Justice Smith. The object of the application was to compel the magistrate to hear a case in which he had decided that he had no jurisdiction.

The plaintiff was Stanley Walter Bean Wilson, labourer, Whangarei (Mr. Crimp), against whom an order was made on April 3, 1928, for payment of £1 a week for the maintenance of his divorced wife, and 10s for a child. When Wilson applied last month for cancellation of the arrears and variation of the order, Mr. Morris refused to adjudicate on the ground that he had no jurisdiction. Mr. Hubble said that he had just been instructed by solicitors in Wellington to act for the wife. His Honor decided that as the wife might bo prejudiced as a result of the application, she was entitled to be heard, and the case was adjourned to enable Mr. Hubble to look into the position. Mr. Crimp contended that the magistrate, in reading the law as he had done, had not construed the Act, but had amended or altered it. It was the intention of the Legislature to give full powers to the magistrate once the case- was removed from the Supreme Couvt to the Magistrate's Court..

Mr. Hubble argued that the Destitute Persons Amendment, Act limited the magistrate's powers to dealing with all proceedings for the enforcement of a maintenance order, so long as it existed in the Supreme Court, apd did not give him power to cancel or vary an ordfr. "In view of the/ varying practices in the Magistrate's Court, I shall put my decision in writing," said His Honor.