SALARIES OF BRITISH JUDGES UNCHANGED SINCE THE YEAR 1832

Wanganui Chronicle, 6 May 1949, Page 5

SALARIES OF BRITISH JUDGES UNCHANGED SINCE THE YEAR 1832

LONDON, May 5 Rec. 6 p.m.)— Mr. Glenvil Hall, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, said in the House of Commons that the Government proposed shortly to introduce legislation to enable salaries of High Court judges to be increased. The salaries of British High Court judges are still the same as they were when they were originally fixed in 1832, when there was no income tax. They were then fixed at £5OOO a year for 33 High Court judges, £BOOO a year for the Lord Chief Justice, and £6OOO a year for the Master of Rolls. Lords of Appeal in Ordinnary received £6OOO and Lords Justices of Appeal £5OOO. When these salaries were originally established it was considered they were sufficiently high to put all judges beyond the reach of financial temptation. Today, however, a High Court judge s salary of £5OOO a year is reduced by taxation to £2554 That sum, it is considered, is approximately equal to £5OO in 1832. In order to receive a nett £5OOO a year today a judge would have to be paid £25,000. The Attorney-General, Sir Hartley Shawcross, addressing a gathering of lawyers in London last week, said: “Judges’ salaries are out of all proportion to those that may be earned by successful men in commerce and the professions, and ill reflect the great importance of a judge’s office.— Special N.Z.P.A. Correspondent.