COURT ADMINISTRATION

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 18, 22 January 1924, Page 8

COURT ADMINISTRATION

.SAVING IN TIME AND EXPENSE.

" While both in Sydney and Melbourne," remarked Mr. C. E. Matthews, Under-Secretary for Justice, on his return from a visit to Australia to-day, "I took advantage of the opportunities offered to me to see the working of the large central Police Courts in both cities, and sat On the Bench with the Magistrates.

"In regard to the administration of the Supreme Court and the Higher Court business in New South Wales, I found that there the general practice was to take the evidence in both the Supreme and District Courts in shorthand; and, after a trial extending over several years the authorities there" were satisfied that a great saving in the time of the Courts, and, therefore, in Crown and private expenditure, had been made by the introduction of this system. I was informed that the expenditure on the shorthand reporting branch, which consisted of a staff of eighteen, amounted to about £13,000 per annum, while the revenue obtained from the sale .of transcripts of evidence, etc., amounted to £4000 per. annum. While this left an apparent deficit of £9000 on the working of the shorthand reporters' branch, it was quite clear that a much larger amount than that was saved in witnesses', jurors', Crown Solicitors', and other expenses; while it was also obvious that private litigants Were also saved a considerable amount of money on account of the shorter duration of trials, where the evidence was taken in shorthand. I found that they had started the same system .in Victoria in the higher Courts there, and were already obtaining good results?' ' :