NO COURT SITTINGS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19129, 25 September 1936, Page 2

NO COURT SITTINGS

STEWART IS. POSITION

LITIGANTS’ DIFFICULTIES

For the last few years Stewart Island has been in the unusual position of possessing a courthouse and lock-up lor neither of which is there any official use. Until a few years ago court sittings could be held at a special building in Halfinoon Bay by justices of the peace, but the present position is that all cases, even the most trivial, must be tried on tho niainland, either at Bluff or Invercargill. This procedure, the island people claim, makes even the smallest litigation beyond the financial ability of most of the island residents. They say it is another reason why the island can be called “the place of forgotten men.” If a Stewart Island man sued for a small amount wished to defend the case the expense of going to Bluff and staying there during the hearing of the case, or until ho can get a passage back to the island, would be at least £5 and possibly £lO. Cases might thus be allowed to cro by default which could be strongly defended, and the island residents claim that thev are denied rights given in every other part of the Dominion because of tfieir isolation from the mainland. The opinion is expressed that, Die present system should be amended to give iustices of the peace jurisdiction in the Stewart Island Court, and that, it would be advisable-for a magistrate to visit, the island periodically, even if only to inspect the court records. The abolition of all court sittings on the island, it is understood, was concerned with the position ot the justices of tho peace on the island: At one time two of tho three justices were members of the County Council, and because of that there would have been no ouorum of justices available to deal xvij.li any cases brought by the council. That position has now been remedied.