THE CHIEF MAGISTRATE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1414, 22 June 1915, Page 4

THE CHIEF MAGISTRATE.

A MISLEADING TITLE. The custom seems to have arisen in some quarters of giving the Mayors of New Zealand cities the title of “Chief Magistrate.” This is wholly misleading. As a matter of lact, in the Municipal Corporations Act of 1908, the only section concerning the legal powers of a Mayor is No. 28, which reads as follows; “The not being the holder of a publican’s or accommodation license, shall be a justice of the peace during the time be holds such office of Mayor.” There is no mention of the Mayor in the Justices’ Act. If the Mayor of Wellington, for example, were to sit upon the Bench with another Justice of the Peace, he would not lake precedence over him. Neither, of course, would he take precedence over a stipendiary magistrate. The title of the “Chief Magistrate” as applied to the New Zealand Mayor is merely one of the courtesy, and appears to have been borrowed from the English system. At home, however, the Mayor is literally the chief magistrate. In Loudon for example, the aldermen are all magistrates, and the Lord Mayor is the chief. The corporation controls its own police,'and the Central Criminal Comt as well as the City of London Court are controlled by committees of the corporation. Inquests into firea are also held by the corporation. Many city corporations in Great Britain, however, exist under charter. In New Zealand there are none such, all municipal corporations owing their origin to statue law, in no part of which is any warrant found for calling the Mayor the “Chief Magistrate."— N.Z. Times.