The Globe. SATURDAY, JUNE 8, 1878.

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1347, 8 June 1878, Page 2

The Globe. SATURDAY, JUNE 8, 1878.

Those wonderful political manipulators, Sir George Grey and his colleagues, are at it again. If wo are to believe the Press Agency, another trick of legerdemain is about to bo performed, with a view of once more dazzling a goodnatured public, already somewhat surfitted with the sensational. The Agency wired from the seat of Government the other day that arrangements had boon made by the Ministry by which Resident Magistrates thoughout the colony, who are not lawyers, must relinquish their appointments, the Government being about to appoint District Judges in each Provincial district, who would act as Resident Magistrates ; the appointees, in each case, to be members of the profession; and this day’s telegrams tell us that at least one of the District Judges has boon appointed. Furthermore, we are told, a roll of Justices

of the Peace will bo made up, and those Justices not attending according to the rota to bo laid down, will bo struck off the roll. Tins is news with a vengeance, and no wonder that the hearts of numberless J.P.’s quaked within them when they first realized what was before them. What extraordinary and sudden pressure may have impelled the Executive to adopt so extreme a mode of dealing with the judicial branch, per sc , of the Department of Justice, wo are indeed at a loss to comprehend. That the administration of justice required thorough remodelling has long boon a matter of not oriety. Successive Governments spoke of what should bo done in that direction, and, year after year, Parliament gave no uncertain sound as to the universal desire for a general cleansing of what, to many, appeared a veritable Augean stable. But as in many other less important questions connected with Civil Service rofoi'in and its relations with public interests, while the urgency of some definitive steps being taken in the matter was ’ indisputably admitted, no Cabinet, wo believe, found suitable opportunities, or perhaps secured sufficient direct support from the Assembly, to enable them to “ boll the cat.” Commissions wore spoken of and promised, but nothing tangible or practical resulted. Sir George Grey, however, as has been abundantly proved, during the last few months, is not in the habit of sticking at trifles, and especially so when engaged in the prosecution of projects the success of which depends almost wholly upon the amount of popularity which may attach to him who initiates them. No Royal Commission has sat, taken evidence, and reported upon the manner in which the administration of justice is conducted in the Lower Courts; no recommendations have been received on the subject, as far as wo can learn, from high judicial authorities; and, in point of fact, we believe wo are fully justified in saying that the members of that charmed political circle which moves around the Premier as their hallowed centre, have absolutely been kept in the dark as to those radical changes which are stated to bo about taking place, almost immediately, in matters judicial. And indeed, by practical minds fully competent to weigh at their proper value those startling proposals, but one opinion can bo expressed; they are crude and impracticable to a degree, while totally inadequate to meet the exigencies and requirements of the community. Upon their very face they bear the stamp of undue haste and of half-digested, illmaturod consideration. The machinery by which the procedure of District Courts is put in motion is, comparatively speaking, as cumbrous, slow, and expensive, as that of the Supreme Court. Instead of cheaply-dispensed and—let us say —equitable “ law” being placed within the reach of the poorer classes, cast-iron and uncompromisingly dry technicalities will be served out, clothed in a legal garb of the severest cut, to him, who, whether he be able to afford it or not, will be compelled to engage counsel’s assistance, in cases even of the most paltry character. Decisions will no longer be given upon facts, but on law; cases for appeal will bo applied for, and stated, upon the most trivial grounds, and the longest purse will ultimately win the day, let the final verdict be what it may. As to the personnel of these embryo District Courts, wo very much fear that none but men of more than inferior standing in their profession will be found available for the preferment. As times and things go at the present moment, lawyers of characteristically humble attainments find it of little difficulty to earn incomes very much larger indeed than those which the Government will only bo able to offer to District Judges. £BOO a year is, we believe, the highest yearly salary paid to those gentlemen.

From the consideration of those results which, wo have no hesitation in saying, will certainly follow the substitution of District Courts for the presentßcsident Magistrates’ jurisdiction, we now come to the other portion of the new proposals, viz., that which it is intended shall take the place of the inferior jurisdiction of the latter. And here it seems evident that Sir George Grey has gone from one extreme to another. “ Justice’s justice,” whether hero or in the old country, has never been a popular institution; very far from it. But in New Zealand, the wonderful growth of a prosperous and fast-developing colony has naturally brought in its train a kind of mushroom aristocracy, numberless units of which, through qualifications of a monetary or perhaps of a more delicate nature, have found their claims to be placed on the Commission of the Beaee recognised. As a general rule, those gentlemen are as ignorant of the veriest elements of their duties as they are of the internal economy of the moon. To them, our New Zealand statute-book is as foreign as a swallowtail coat is to a Zanzibar negro. Tiro laws of evidence, without the aid of which it is absolutely impossible for the bestordered brains to sift things judicial to a true conclusion, have probably never reached their notice. And in Now Zealand, unfortunately, in the matter of Petty Sessional procedure, we are ever so much more at a disadvantage than are our friends in England. There, whether it be in the County Courts, the Stipendiary Courts, or the Courts of Petty Sessions, the clerks of those Benches are invariably members of the legal profession, and their assistance is always at the beck and call of the Magistrates, whether in or out of Court. Such is not the case in the colony. What is really needed in this much desired reform of the administration of justice, is, without a doubt, the establishment and maintenance of a judicial system likely to obviate the evils of the two extremes to which the Government are apparently going to commit themselves. That the present state of affairs in the Resident Magistrates’ Courts requires serious amendment, no one, wo fool sure, will deny. And without going to Utopian lengths, or endeavouring to give substance to .idealistic impossibilities, wo fancy that the remedy might bo found with but little difficulty. Lawyers, themselves, are pretty unanimous in denouncing a system under which none but members of the profession would hold the scale of justice in the Lower Courts. Some of our readers may remember that sometime in 18(>8 a , Bill was introduced in the House of j Representatives by the late Mr. Borlase,

the Provincial Solicitor of Wellington, the purport of which was to put an end to the unpleasant state of things so commonly witnessed in various Resident Magistrates’ Courts through the iucompetoucy or ignorance of those who ruled there. The Bill, unfortunately, mot. with an untimely fate. But so far as we can see, the experience of the last ton years has not in any measure diminished the weight of the reasons which prompted the framers of that Bill to bring it forward. It was a short Bill, and contained but a few lines. It made it incumbent upon any Resident Magistrate then in office to submit himself, within so many mouths, to an examination upon certain technical subjects, such as the Statute Law of New Zealand, the Laws of Evidence, and upon all matters appertaining to the minutice of the procedure of his own Court, or in connection with proceedings carried from the lower courts to a higher tribunal. Any one not satisfactorily passing the ordeal was to bo weeded out of the service. And furthermore, it was proposed to bo enacted that no appointment of Resident Magistrate could at any time bo made unless the appointee had successfully fulfilled the requirements of that examination. Under existing circumstances, and taking into consideration the many and all-important public interests at stake which would, without a doubt, bo greatly endangered by so revolutionary and expensive a change as that which, wo are told, is contemplated, wo cannot see that anything more useful or more practical could bo devised than that suggested in the Bill to which wo have referred. It is certainly a remarkable fact that so largo a question, and one surrounded with so many difficulties of a technical, financial, and, lot us say, social character, should have been dealt with in such a hap-hazard manner by the Government. It seems like a coup de theatre, as our Gallic friends have it. But then, is not the “ great Pro-consul ” fond of that kind of flashing displays ?