A Word to the Government.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 28 November 1891, Page 2

A Word to the Government.

We have so frequently pointed out the unfair position the Justices of the Peace are now placed by the Government, in being called upon to decide cases without the assistance of a Clerk to the Court, that it is satisfactory to find that His Honor the Chief Justice is of the same opinion. In the ease of Wackrow v Robert Tait and John Priest, in which the plaintiff recovered compensation for illegal arrest, His Honor is reported to have said : — It may he, of course, simply through ignorance or stupidity on the part of the defendants that they took the action they did, or it may be worse ; but it is undoubtedly one of those things which illustrate the misapplication of a state of things which may be quite satisfactory in England but which ia certainly not satisfactory in a place like New Zealand. In England there are a large number of educated gentlemen who aye conversant with the administration of the criminal law so far as it has to be administered by inferior tribunals • persons who from their childhood really are indoctrinated with the principals which ought to be acted upon and which ought to guide them. They are, too, in most cases advised and served by competent clerks of the Bench, and a system of that kind can therefore work well in England. But to apply it to New Zealand is entirely absurd. In the first place, the Justices of the Peace here are a different class of people, not having the knowledge and experience of the justices in England ; and then instead of having competent clerks of the Bench to advise and I guide them, in the country districts there are policemen, who not only have not the requisite knowledge, but their very office unfits them for the position. There is no doubt about it that the system is vicious in the extreme. If the Government after this fail to pay attention to these remarks, they will be guilty of a great wrong to the public, as all excuse of ignorance is now swept away. All p this coast thera ara only two Clerks of Courts between Wellington and Wanganui, the other places are served by constables who have had this duty thrust upon them for a purely nominal addition to their pay. *