The Lyttelton Times.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VI, Issue 389, 26 July 1856, Page 6

The Lyttelton Times.

Saturday, July 26. TaiiSE are not probably more than three or four persons, if there are so many, in the Province, who are not anxious to see a better *-y.stera for tiie Administration of Justice adopted throughout the Guljiry. '1 lie means

however, of effecting- "an jimp rove merit are not easily discovered. Every scheme is open to grave objection. Most of those which ! would be available in an old country are impracticable here. But that something must be done is evident. The public can no longer endure the expense and delay consequent upon any present attempt to obtain justice. However poor a community of Englishmen may be, they are generally prepared to go to a comparatively large expense in order to obtain the best administration of law attainable under the circumstances in which they are placed. They rightly esteem the establishment of good Courts of Justice the palladium of their liberties. So long as these Courts are kept independent, and attainable by the poorest at all times, all other Government machinery is comparatively unimportant. We think it was Edmund Burke who observed that the whole paraphernalia of the British Constitution was a vast machine forgetting twelve honest men into a jury bos. This is an exaggerated expression of a great truth, which comes home to men forcibly when the)' have had justice practically denied to them through the difficulties of a new country. There are in every country a class of men who are ready to exclaim against the expense of improvement, and to insinuate that those who advocate it have some interested or sinister object iti view. Such will be the favourite cry of those who have no argument to adduce. But we can gather from the people generally—from the practical thinking men of the Colony—but one opinion on the subject: and that is, that the present state of things is a crying evil which must be amended coiite qtii coute.

Under these circumstances we are sjlad to observe that the question is now occupying the serious attention of the legislature. Mr. Dudley Ward, one of the members of the House of Representatives from the province of Wellington, , has brought in a Disrict, Courts Bill, which appears to have been very favourably received. It is not y<it published in the Auckland papers, and tiie reports of debates in the house are so irregular and scanty, that the only account we can find of it in them is to be gathered from Mr. Ward's speech on moving the second reading. Ii is impossible, therefore, to form a decided opinion upon its merits or demerits. We publish the speech alluded to to-day, so that our readers can form their own opinion upon it. The scheme seems to us to be a practicable improvement upon the present siate of law administration. As far as we can gather, Mr. Ward himself dues not wish to put it forward as a permanent one. He proposes that it should only be brought into operation in those Provinces which demand its establishment. It would be needless here to recapitulate the leading features of the measure from Mr. Ward's speech. To refer our readers to it is easier and more satisfactory. There is one provision in the proposed bill, however, to which we should be inclined most seriously^to object. It is proposed to vest the patronage of these Courts, virtually, in the hands of the Superintendents of the several Provinces. Mr. Ward, says in alluding to an alternative of increasing the powers of the Resident Magistrates, "It certainly is my opinion that the Provinces should have a voice in the appointment of the presiding officers of courts of such local importance as an extension of jurisdiction would make those of the Resident Magistrates." Now we dissent in toto from the principle of this proposition. The appointment of the Chief Officer of a Court of justice should not be made a matter of party feeling. Is it likely that it would not be made,so in most cases, when the appointment rested virtually in Elected Heads of Government? Is there any one who

believes that the appointment would not be made a reward for political support, or a bait held out to the ambitious of office > The judge would become the servant of the Government for the time being, instead of the independent O adminstrator. of the law standing between the Governing and th' Governed. When the law courts are in fluenced, as in America, by party 'combinal tions, then indeed the tyranny of "democracy begins. If this would be the case i n a larger country, would the evil not be trebly aggravated in a district where almost every individual's opinions are known, and where party feuds assume the pleasant and ennobling features of a disturbance in an English Vestry meeting ?

If the patronage be vested elsewhere than in the Provincial Authorities we hope that the measure proposed may be useful to New Zealand. At any rate, Mr. Dudley Ward deserves the thanks of the colony for having brought under the notice of the legislature the pressing necessity for some improvement in the administration of justice as it at present exists between man and man.