THE JUDICIARY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21980, 15 June 1933, Page 9

THE JUDICIARY

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—-! trust that the retrograde suggestion that justices of the peace try petty cases will not be adopted. To the average layman the dispensation of justice in petty cases appears to be a simple matter, whereas in reality it is complicated. I write with a certain amount of experience on this matter, as it befell my lot to act in a magisterial capacity without legal training, and later, after having passed the prescribed legal examinations, as a first-class magistrate in India and Iraq for five years. However simple a case may appear, there is a grave possibility of the miscarriage of justice unless the magistrate has had a proper legal training. Apart from the question of legal training. it seems unwise and unfair to ask local J.P.'s to try the type of case which would predominate in these courts —breaches of the closing houra of shops and public houses —as it is a well-known fact that, generally speaking, it is impossible to enforce the law in these t* spects in country districts.—l am,' et&C. S. J. BerkeleyHyde, June 10.