ELECTION OF JUSTICES.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 5048, 5 November 1926, Page 4

ELECTION OF JUSTICES.

AN ABOMINABLE SYSTEM.

AMERICA’S BAD EXAMPLE.

According to Mr J. W. Poynton, S.M., an attempt will be made in this country to have Justices pf the Peace placed in office, by elective methods (says the Morrinsville Star), Speaking before the Matamata branch of the Justices of the Peace Association, Mr Poynton said the system was really an abomination. AU but nineteen judges in .the United States, these being Supreme Court judges, and o«£ very high standing, were elected. Needless to say, their minds were not actuated by principles of justice or fair play. They had to consider the votes to be cas.t at the end of their five yeais period ; there were, in consequence, some, awful miscarriages of justice. In one case a judge was induced to sign a judgment or decision prior, to the case coming before him. This judgment was in favour of a mining company, who were thereby given the extraordinary right of following a vein of ore from their own property into adjacent lands, and sinpe it took .about two and a-lralf years to get a matter of this sort to .the Supreme Court, by that time the unfortunate property owner had been defrauded and the offending company had extracted all the gold from the ore. In all other countries, even in China, the landowner had the rights of all that was on the. surface, of the soil, from the surface to the heavens, and from the surface to the interior of the earth. However, they had different notions in America.

The, judge was often a tool of a company or party, and the result was that the. people lost confidence in .the administration of justice. It had been authoritatively stated that .there were 120',000 murderers walking the streets in the United States. Over the border, in Canada, it .took about five weeks from the apprehension of a murderqr until he paid the penalty of his crime; in .the United States murder cases dragged on for years, even those which had been deliberately committed in cold blood, and often the criminal got off. The system was an absolute abomination, and New Zealand would do well to fight against its introduction to this country.