ACTION AGAINST S.M.

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 792, 12 October 1929, Page 13

ACTION AGAINST S.M.

QUESTION OF HIS POWER MAINTENANCE CASE SEQUEL Interpretation of the powers of » magistrate to hear an application for cancellation of arrears and variation of a maintenance order originally made in the Supreme Court, was asked of Mr. Justice Smith, in the Supreme Court yesterday, on a motion for a writ of mandamus. The motion was moved by a Whangaruru labourer. Stanley Walter Bean Wilson, against the Whaugarei Stipendiary Magistrate, Mr. G. N. Morris. The magistrate had decided that he had no jurisdiction to hear an application by Wilson for cancellation of arrears and variation of a maintenance order for £1 weekly, made in favour of his divorced wife, in the Wellington Supreme Court in April last year. Supporting the motion, Mr. Crimp submitted that the magistrate had not construed the Destitute Persons Act in the way it was iutended. but had amended or altered it. Counsel argued that the intention of the Legislature was to give a magistrate full powers to hear a case once it was removed from the Supreme to the Magistrate’s Court. On behalf of Mrs. Wilson, Mr. Hubble submitted that a magistrate’s powers to deal with proceedings for the enforcement of a maintenance order were limited so long as it existed in the Supreme Court. A magistrate, ho said, was not allowed to cancel or vary an order made by a higher court. His Honour reserved his decision, in view of the varying practices in the Magistrate’s Court.