JUDICIAL APPOINTMENTS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5144, 18 September 1877, Page 3

JUDICIAL APPOINTMENTS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW ZEALAND TIMES. Sir, —It has been a very frequent remark, not only in this city but in other parts of the colony, that except in about one instance every Resident Magistrate in tbe colony has been selected outside the Bar. Is this fair, either to the public or to the legal profession ? The public find the money, and have a right to expect the best article that can he procured for the price. The legal profession is the proper source from whence all persons having to decide points of law ought to bo chosen. Why does the Hon. the Minister of Justice persistently nominate a civil servant to an important judicial appointment, in preference to one who has been specially trained and educated. Surely Wellington has an equal ri”ht to have a legal gentleman at the head of the magistracy as Dunedin. Wellington is at any rate the second commercial town in the colony, important cases in mercantile and shipping law constantly arise, and yet it is thought anyone can decide these cases. It is unfair to the suitors, inasmuch as the judgment is liable to he appealed against by the losing side. In the appointment of district engineers or surveyors would the Governor appoint a B.A. or an M.A. from Oxford or Cambridge merely as such ; would they appoint a doctor or a lawyer to take charge of the s.s. Hinemoa? If not, then why, in the name of common sense, is it considered that almost any one is competent to pex*form the duties of a Resident Magistrate ? I would throw out a hint to some of the M.H.R.’s, that a motion should be made that, “in the opinion of this House, no one shall in future be appointed a Resident Magistrate with jurisdiction in cases exceeding £2O, unless such person be a barrister of the Supreme Court of New Zealand of not less than three years’ standing.” If any town or district is of sufficient importance to require n court with more extended jurisdiction than £2O, then it is essential that the magistrate should be a legal man. I say pay your Resident Magistrates well, even if there are fewer of them, or if their duties are increased.

It may he said the lawyers are all making too mucli money to accept such an appointment. True, most of them are, but doubtless there are five or six out of the whole New Zealand Bar who could be got to accept £SOO or £6OO a-yeax*—try. —I am, ,&0.. Vox Bopuli. Wellington, September 15.