MAGISTRATES' COURTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22205, 7 March 1934, Page 7

MAGISTRATES' COURTS

CASES CONCERNING WOMEN v GREATER PRIVACY URGED (Peb United Pbbss Association.) WELLINGTON, March 6. Stating that magistrates conducting Police Court cases had extensive' powers of discretion in ordering the court to be cleared of the outside public, but that generally they were s© well used to hearing details of cases where that action was necessary that they seldom exercised their power, Mrs H. M. Chatfield, at to-night's meeting of the Wellington Justices' Association, appealed for this to be done very much more often. /In mja'intenance : and similar domestic cases, "she said,' it was from many points of view a bad thing that the type of public audience that was usually present should not be excluded. "I was exceedingly sorry to Bee that our delegates to the hy*t annual conference in InvercVgill voted against the principle of any increased Privaqym the courts and aIBO against the of women police in New Zealand,' she said. "I don't know whether any of you ever,visit sittings of the Women's and Domestic Court op M OIM *ay 8 ' That ia the court that all of us connected 4 with women's protection societies and similar institutions, are go. anxious tQ have held privately. A great deal of very unpleasant evidence cOmes out in them* Later, when members were. discussing remits by other branches to be submitted to the coming New Zealand conference at Auckland; they decided to support one recommending the institution "of? women police for the protection of girls. They found no remit concerning privacy in courts among them," and no action vas taken at the meeting in that connection.