ABOLITION OF DISTRICT COURTS: A PROTEST.

Thames Star, Volume XLV, Issue 10419, 12 May 1909, Page 4

ABOLITION OF DISTRICT COURTS: A PROTEST.

The aiboiition of ■ 'District Courts, ■which hla® been decided! uponi was adversely commented upon at yesterday's sittingl, the last, of the District Court a* Thames. 'Mr Ctendon' said that the "District Courts had' done valuable "work," amd if they -were to be abolished it was necessary :that the Supreme Court" judges should go ,on circuit. We-notice that in-tthe Weetland district tihe proposal to aiboHsh thel CouWts meets r with strong disapproval. The Law Society haive. forwarded to us a leading article extracted fownltheGreymioutli Evening Star, in which, tihe position is reviewed at length, amd Or 1. Kndlay is roundly cfandeanned fbr his ajation. It saya that the Courts are to be abolished "before "Pairliament meets so that they will he dead whetn the House 'assembles, and remarks thai the whole: business has a nasty aspect and sugjgie&t lMoti'ves alien to those which sihiould influence the Minister of Justice, who by the bye, is

not in the Representative House, and cannot therefore be called to account for his actions as Minister of Justice. Sbt only tilie manner of the execution of the District Court by proclamation, but the execiution itself deserves the sifcrongest condemnation. The 'District Courts have sei-ved the country for the past 50 years. They have supplied! a public want, especially in places to wWoh. the' Supreme Court cannot travel, and in which the establishment of Supreme Court offices would be inconvenient and oxpensive. The procedure of tihet Districtt Courts might be improved in matters of d'etadl, 'but there is little hope of this ibeinig done while iLe Minister of Justice is antagonistic to theif existenlce. On the whole they are still useful and active Courts, run on veryi cheap lines, and standing; midway betweeni -thie Supreme Coart and Maigistrate's Courts. We ask why should they be abolished except for the purpose of centralising business in the cities, and; compelling country practitioners to employ town agents at the expenses of their clients? .