A GRAVE INDICTMENT.
MAGISTRATES NOT INDEPENDENT. SUBJECT TO POLITICAL INTERFERENCE. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Auckland, Last Night. Some strong comments were passed on our judicial system, as relating to magistrates, by Mr. H. W. Northcroft, S.M., this afternoon, when a presentation was made to him on his retirement from the Magisterial bench. •'Our magistrates are not independent," said Mr. Northcroft. '"They are subject too much to political interference." He went on to say that this* constituted a grave danger to that fairness and impartiality with which a magistrate ought to carrj out his work. "Magistrates," he continued, "had industrial and other disputes brought before them outside their usual judicial work, and a constant endeavour was made from influential sources to bring them under the whip." In concluding, Mr. Northcroft said it was the duty of citizens in this young Dominion, while there was yet time, to move in the matter of making magistrates as independent as Supreme Court judges.
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Bibliographic details
Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 173, 1 November 1910, Page 5
Word Count
158A GRAVE INDICTMENT. Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 173, 1 November 1910, Page 5
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