The Otago Witness. DUNEDIN, SATURDAY, SEPT. 26.

Otago Witness, Issue 1191, 26 September 1874, Page 13

The Otago Witness. DUNEDIN, SATURDAY, SEPT. 26.

The impossibility of raising a man's social position by assigning to him an honourable office was never better illustrated than by the positions of the Justices of the Peace, both here and in Victoria. The dignified quasi-judicial functions of the wealthy squires and well-born magnates who administer justice in rural England, suggested itself to bhe minds of those who regulated the course of the Queen's writ in New Zealand as worthy of such perpetuation — snch immortality as they could give it. The portly form, ruddy face, and white hair that represents to Giles and Hodge their only ideal of omnipotence, was too good to be lost, if rules and regulations could by any means embalm it. Quite unconscious of the anachronism, the endeavour was made to reproduce the good old English Justice by the mere magic of adding two letters to the tail of a man's name. All unconscious of how near the ridiculous lies to the sublime, and how excellent a foil the New Zealand congener would prove to his Dorsetshire prototype, our rulers perpetrated their witty burlesque, and arranged a plan, admirable upon paper, for administering Justioe's justice. We see now how foolish such an attempt is. Albeit, there are in our towns, and here and there in the country too, very worthy representatives of the old English squire-justice. It must be allowed that the Colonial struggle for existence has not permitted the survival of many such men. For the most part the title of J.P. has been given to men at the urgent solicitation of political hangers-on, on account of the services rendered by them. Sometimes it has been given t» satisfy a district, and enable residents to perform certain acts required by the law, without having to undertake a long day's tnaroh. Sometimes, but more rarely, it has been allotted — we use the word advisedly to express the hazardous nature of the appointment — to save the expense of appointing a Resident Magistrate. In Victoria, the same causes have produced the same results, and it is a favourite topic for wits to sharpen their tongues upon, that a Justice of the Peace is, at least, not an honourable designation any longer. The last session of the Assembly produced one or two amusing debates concerning the failures of some occupants of the Bench to administer justice, the scrapes in which others found themselves, the derogatory position in which one appeared, and the contempt showered upon another. It has always been a favourite plan with oertain politicians to make Petty Sessions gradually supplant the R.M.s Court, and only the utter disgust of the people with such a notion has forced the Government to hold their hand and proceed no farther in this direction. We believe Mr Stafford always had some such plan in his mind, and, rightly or wrongly, Mr Bathgate was credited with the desire to signalise his reign over the Department of Justice by effecting 1 a similar alteration. One of the debates to which we have referred will be found under the heading of Petty Sessions, Amusingly enough, it arose out of a proposal to repeal a clause in the Petty Sessions Act, 1865, which rendered it obligatory on the Governor to remove from the Commission of Peace those gentlemen who failed twice in any year to attend the Petty Sessions Court on the day appointed for their attendance. Probably to most of the gentlemen who are on the Justices' list the debate would be the first intimation that any such rule existed. Positively, in Auckland, the point was raised against one of the Justices sitting on the bench to decide a grave charge, that he ought to have been removed under this clause. Mr O'Rorke, however, on being appealed to, finding that the rule had never been enforced, declined very wisely to recommend that it should be then carried out, and took the course of recommending its repeal. The amusing part of the discussion was the disclosure made of the estimation in which Justices were held by many members. Mr Sheehan, who merely expressed the almost universal opinion of the country, declared that justice would be better and more cheaply administered, if only Stipendiary Magistrates were allowed to hold the scales. "If the paid Magistrates preside, the work would be better done, the law administered would be sounder, and the justice done would be much more just. Any person who had appeared professionally before the various courts knew at once

the difference between Courts of Justice presided over by Justices of the Peace, and those in which persons qualified to administer justice presided (the antithesis is admirable), and some professional men availed themselves of that difference by going much farther than they would dare to go before men who knew their duty." Mr Sheeiian might have gone farther than this himself. Undoubtedly Justices' justice has, in public estimation, sunk beneath contempt. We know instances in which litigants have gone to much trouble and expense to avoid submitting their case to the decision of incompetent Justices. With a few honourable exceptions, we know that public opinion has declared unmistakeably that they distrust the great unpaid.

Here and there, indeed, are men qualified for their task, and who take a pleasurein serving theircountry. Theexceptions only prove the rule. As a rule, the circumstances of the Colony are not such a* to furnish men of leisure and ability to undertake any onerous duty like that of administering the law. A time will come, no doubt, when we shall find plenty of candidates able and willing to discharge this important task. At present, save in the centres of population, they are almost entirely absent. Any servile imitation of home customs must only result in lowering the dignity of the law, and rendering those affected distrustful of its impartiality. At present it is but wise to use unpaid service very sparingly unless we are desirous of a fiasco.