THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES. TUESDAY, JUNE 13, 1933. THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21978, 13 June 1933, Page 8

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES. TUESDAY, JUNE 13, 1933. THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE

The Minister of Justice will have little anticipated the lack of warmth with which his idea, somewhat incautiously expressed last week, of making greater use of the services 'of the justices of the peace has been received. His impression of the system under which justice is administered in the inferior courts of the United Kingdom seems to have led Mr Cobbe to the belief that the State might advantageously call upon the justices of the peace in New Zealand to relieve the stipendiary magistrates of some, at least, of the work that is performed by them. The Minister is mistaken, however, in supposing that the services of justices of the peace at Home are utilised to any great extent in the administration of justice. It is probable that he is not less mistaken in supposing, as presumably he must suppose, that, any great saving in either time or money would be effected by employing the services of justices of the peace in judicial proceedings in the Dominion. For 1 it is not entirely the case that good commonsense and business- knowledge, with which Mr Cobbe courteously credits the justices of the peace in the Dominion, are “ the main things.” We may agree that a great deal of the time of the magistrates is occupied in disposing of trivial cases, the adjudication of which! might, it may be argued, be suitably left to justices of the peace. But it is not to be seriously imagined that the justices of the peace would be content to be “put off,” as it were, with the most trumpery business of the courts. Even if they were, it is to be apprehended that the result would be less than satisfactory, for a dozen different justices might have'-a dozen different ideas about the extent of the penalty that should be imposed upon some offender against, say, the transport regulations, and the effect would be that there would be no standardisation of punishment such as may be expected under the administration of the law by the paid magistracy. Moreover, the appointments that are made to the Commission of the Peace are not based on the proved judicial qualities of those upon whom the appointment is conferred. In large measure they are political appointments pure and simple. Justices of the peace perform a useful function in the respect that declarations and other documents may be sworn before them, but the administration • of the law is much more satisfactorily performed when it is entrusted to those who have been trained in the practice of the law and are aware of the principles to be applied in the interpretation of the law than it would be if it were handed over, even in part, to honorary magistrates.