TOLD THE MAGISTRATE

Hokitika Guardian, 16 January 1928, Page 1

TOLD THE MAGISTRATE

LONDON, Oil. i’7. Easy streets run through the ‘-Never. Never ” district, that pays tribute at Clerkemvell County Court. In other areas tenants who tlo not. pay their rents come and go; but dw lers in easy streets neither pay nor go. and that is why suffering landlords call it the “ Never Never ” district—they never, never get their hack rent money. This is how it is done: A tenant tails into arrears for weeks—mayhe months —and when he is given notice to Quit he appears at the county court and pleads hard times, and the judge allows him to remain in the house so long as he pays the current rent. In this way landlords who in many cases are not better off than their tenants have to let their houses rentfree for long periods to people whom they cannot evict. It is a very good game for the tenant, hut it means ruin for the poor landlord who lias sunk his savings in house property. Judge Hairstow, who sits at Clerketiwell, is a Yovkshiremnn. a keen-faced man whose firm, tight-lipped month would give him an expression of severity if it were not for the kindly eyes beaming through gold-rimmed spectacles. He has an extensive vocabulary, spiced with piquant phrases that make his frequent duels with counsel entertaining for the appreciative public. Landlords complain that he is so lenient with tenants that their houses have become permanent homes for the

•• won t pays. One of the Great Entrenched who entered the defendants’ box yesterday was an eloquent woman, who warmly protested that during the last few weeks she had been paying off arrears. “ Why do you bring her here when she is beginning to reduce the hack rent?” asked the judge. A little cross-examination gave him the answer. She herself earned 30s a week, she obtained 10s a week hv subletting, and she had a. son who earned £1 a week. “I have to pay 8s m rates, she complained. ‘‘Mo you don’t; we credit you with * that,” replied, the landlord.