NEW COURT BUILDING

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23130, 31 August 1938, Page 18

NEW COURT BUILDING

CEREMONY AT BLENHEIM CONSTRUCTION COST £26,000 [Hi* TELEGRAPH PKKSS ASSOCIATION"] BLE&HEIM, Tuesday

The new Blenheim Courthouse, erected in reinforced concrete at a cost of £26,000, was officially opened this afternoon by the Attorney-General, the Hon. 11. G. R. .Mason, in the presence of a largo crowd. A formal sitting of the Supremo Court followed, presided over by the Chief Justice, Sir Michael Myers, in association with Mr. Justice Blair, and Mr. R. McCallum, senior member of the local Bar, moved that tho proceedings of the da} - should be entered in the records of the Court.

The new building is modern in type, a single-storey structure attractively situated facing tho public gardens. In alluding to the cost of the buildings, Sir Michael Mvers said it might be said by thrifty-minded people that tho expenditure of such a sum on a courthouse, in a district which had so frequently been congratulated upon its freedom from crime, was excessive, but it was necessary to remember that the greatest proportion of the Court's work would consist of civil proceedings. In the history of the Supreme Court in this district, there had been only two capital charges, one as far back as IS7G.