A PEACEMAKER

Taranaki Daily News, 5 September 1935, Page 6

A PEACEMAKER

MATRIMONIAL DISPUTES. MAGISTRATE’S BRIGHT IDEA. Mr. Claud Mullins, the Metropolitan Magistrate, on August 6 gave an encouraging survey of the work of the Matrimonial Court which he has established at the South-western Police Court, states the London Daily Telegraph. His report covers the first seven months of this year, and discloses the following results; Summonses issued, 220; cases settled without appearance in court as a result of interviews with probation officer, 38; cases withdrawn after further talks with the officer, 7. Thus in 45 cases matters were adjusted after summons without any public hearing. Of the other cases 54 were adjourned; 9 resulted in interim orders being made. In none of these 63 cases has there been any further hearing, and no final orders have been made. , There were also 23 cases dismissed; 89 final orders made for separation or maintenance. In addition to the above, Mr. Mullins stated, 71 applicants who were in domestic trouble, but were not seriously contemplating separation, were referred by the probation officer to the local clergy. None of those cases resulted in court proceedings. . Mr. Mullins founded the matrimonial court at the South-western Court when he was transferred from North London, where he had already made .a trial of the idea. . His guiding principle is to bring husbands and wives together again. In this he has: been helped by the local clergy, by doctors— always with the consent of the parties—where sexual ignorance is the cause of the trouble, and by the probation officer. As soon as a summons is granted the probation officer writes to the husband saying that he is sorry to learn that there is unhappiness between him and his wife, and suggesting that, “It will probably help you. both if you had a personal talk with me before the case comes on.” “I am convinced,” Mr. Mullins said, “that if I had been compelled to hear these cases on the old-fashioned lines, the number heard publicly in court and the number of final orders would have beep considerably greater, while the number of cases dismissed would have been smaller. Under the new metnods husbands, have, in my opinion, a better opportunity of explaining their conduct.” Mr. Mullins regards assault cases between husband and wife not as criminal matters, but as domestic disputes. Of the ten cases which came before him in the period under review two summonses were withdrawn, in five cases no order was made, the parties being referred to the probation officer with their consent, and three husbands were bound over. Cases are not heard in the Police Court,

with its dock and witness-box, but in the magistrate’s consulting room, where the parties sit before him on comfortable chairs. In this informal atmosphere they speak more freely, the full facts are soon before the magistrate, and he is better able to judge whether a remedy can be found. Mr. Mullins is satisfied that under the policy he is pursuing no one is denied his or her legal rights, but that applicants are made to realise, as far as possible, the consequences of an order before a summons is granted.