JUSTICE IN STEWART ISLAND

Evening Star, Issue 22452, 24 September 1936, Page 17

JUSTICE IN STEWART ISLAND

NO PROVISION FOR COURT SITTING EXPENSE OF MAINLAND VISIT PENALISES LITIGANTS [Per United Press Association.] INVERCARGILL, September 23. For the last few years Stewart Island has been in the unusual position of possessing a courthouse and a lock-up for neither of which there is any legal use. Until a few years ago court sittings could be held at a special building in Halfmoon Bay by justices of the peace, but the present position is that all cases, even the most trivial, must be tried on the mainland at Bluff or Invercargill. This procedure, the island people claim, makes even the smallest litigation expensive beyond the financial ability of most island residents. They say it is another reason why the island can be called “ The place of forgotten men.” If a Stewart Island man who is sued for a small amount wishes to defend the case the expense of going to Bluff and staying there during the hearing of the case, or until he can get a passage back to the island, would be at least £5, and possibly £lO. Cases might thus be allowed to go by default which could be strongly defended, and the island residents claim that they are denied the rights given to every other part of the Dominion because of their isolation from the mainland. • The opinion is expressed that the present system should be amended to give justices of the peace jurisdiction in the Stewart Island court, and it is also suggested that it would be advisable for a magistrate to visit the island on occasions, even if only to inspect the court records. Such magisterial visits had been made in the past, and only in recent years had they been stopped. _ . The reason given for the abolition of all court sittings had been concerned, it was understood, with the position of justices of the peace on the island. At one time two of three justices of Stewart Island had been members of the County Council, and because of that there would have been no quorum of justices available to deal with any cases brought by the council. That position had now been remedied, and there appeared to be no reason why in the cause of justice permission should be withheld for the holding of court sittings on Stewart Island.