TASK FOR WOMEN

Taranaki Daily News, 8 November 1935, Page 13

TASK FOR WOMEN

BRITISH LAW REFORM. WIT OF LORD CHIEF JUSTICE. Lord Hewart, Britain’s Lord Chief Justice, humorously suggested the set-ting-up of a select committee of business women to consider law reforms, recently. He was speaking at an informal luncheon of members of the Law Society, who were the guests of Lord Blanesburgh at Winchelsea, Sussex, during an excursion following the provincial meeting of the society at Hastings. Referring to discussions at the meeting, Lord Hewart said: “I gather that many of you are of the opinion that the administration— I will not say of justice but of law—requires a complete overhaul, and that some have a feeling that we do not have enough inquiries or committees. . “I suggest for your consideration that the next time you should have, not a committee of first-class business men, but a select committee—a really select committee—of first-class business women for a complete overhaul of the administration of the law in Britain. . “When that body is appointed—and of course it will be able to administer as many oaths as it thinks, fit I hope it will not too easily adopt the suggestions that the Court of Appeal and the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division should be abolished. “It is said that if these proposals were adopted at least nine judges would be available, without further expense, to do the ordinary work of the Law Courts, and that we might have these nine Judges sitting six days a week, from ten in the morning until six in the evening, during August and September, and that the reproach of the long vacation would be wholly taken away.”