SALARIES OF JUDGES

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17820, 1 July 1932, Page 3

SALARIES OF JUDGES

CUT ABANDONED LONDON, May 22. Very quietly, witli so little stir that the struggle was almost unnoticeablo on the surface, British judges have started and- won a short, stiff fight over constitutional issues of supreme importance to their unique position in the Government. The judges are not, technically, “servants of the Crown,” for all State servants so designated can bo fired. Nobody can dismiss a. British judge. He sits for life. Violation of constitutional law was unthought of last autumn when the Government, through Qrders-in-Council, cut the pay of all judges 20 per cent. This meant for most of them a reduction from £SOOO annually to £4OOO, or a deeper slash than was made in the payrolls of some other Governmental do. pertinents. like the Civil Servants in the postoffice, the police and the navy during the Invergorden demonstrations, the judges protested. Successive reforms in the executive reduced the powers of thp King until the Crown came lo mean the Premier and his Cabinet. It was the Cabinet which imposed the pay cuts by Orders-in-Council, a power conferred by Parliament which enables the Government to act by decree without specific parliamentary approval for a specified period of time. Hence the constitutional issue. Half a dozen judges who had reached the age of retirement threatened to resign and draw their pensions. Then threats of a parliamentary battle pndpd the fight. The judges won. It has been intimated that “when the Budget is balanced” the judges’ salaries will be restored.