A Forward Move

NZ Truth, Issue 1210, 7 February 1929, Page 6

A Forward Move

THE moving finger has written and Magistrate J. H. Salmon, of Wellington, moves on to Wanganui. This denotes the ascent of the ladder for whereas J.xi.S. did not occupy the box sea m Wellington city he undoubtedly will m Wanganui. It is magistrates like Salmon that compel the jettisoning of preconceived notions regarding occupants of the bench. Do you picture him a militant martinet with gimlet-boring eye and cacophonous delivery? Then so surely shall you be awarded another guess! Sound m his dicta; a stickler for procedure, Salmon is bland and mild of manner and handles his cases m a spirit of sweet reasonableness. , He knows his New Zealand. As a judge's associate he tripped it up and down the coast line until one bright day he espied the Promised Land m Hamilton. But alack, it was but a mirage; a chimera. For quke a number of young solicitors had also found Hamilton good to look upon, so after a brief season there J.H.S. went back to his old job of associate. He had not long to wait. Good men and true for the bench are never m over-supply and Thames woke up one morn to find that a cool and efficient youngish man named Salmon had descended upon them to chasten their delinquents and smooth out their legal tangles. Since then there has been no need for him to emulate Lot's wife!