DELAY'S AT COURT.

Waipa Post, Volume XXI, Issue 1210, 25 February 1922, Page 4

DELAY'S AT COURT.

AN increasing accumulation of Magistrate's Court business in Te Awamutu points to the necessity for increased magisterial attention here. During recent months it has almost invariably happened that cases have had to be adjourned on account of the volume of business, and this, unfair to the parties themselves, must be unsatisfactory to the presiding magistrate. This month again it has happened; cases set down 'for hearing have had to be adjourned for one month, and the litigants and their witnesses have all had an unnecessary pilgrimage to the court in consequence. The trouble is not with the magistrate; his time is too fully occupied to enalble him to discharge all of the duties within the time allotted to Te Awamutu. The authorities in Wellington hold the key to the situation, and, although the courts give little sympathy to those who foolishly give extended credit which ends in man yof the disputes that finally come 'forward for magisterial pronouncement, it yet remains that the authorities are in duty bound to provide against the volume of business offering. Either the magisterial districts should be confined to the reasonable limits of one-man attention or some other assistance should be provided. In the interests of all parties who voluntarily or compulsorily resort to the court it should be arranged that in future fortnightly magisterial visits will enable the volume of business to be coped with and the existing vexatious and long delays rendered unnecessary.