DUTIES OF LAWYERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1051, 15 August 1930, Page 16

DUTIES OF LAWYERS

MAY SUPERSEDE THE MAGISTRACY MR. W. H. WOODWARD’S OPINION Press Association WELLINGTON, Today. Interesting comment on the decrease in crime, and the growing function of lawyers as arbitrators, was made by Mr. W. H. Woodward, S.M., at the opening of the courthouse at Upper Hutt. It had been suggested, he said, that the court was too smal. He considered it rather a matter lor congratulation that only a small building was thought to bo needed. If they could see the ’district 100 years hence, they would find that the court had still sufficient accommodation for the work to be done. He thought this was for two reasons. Firstly, crime in the country was decreasing, and would continue to decrease owing to better and saner methods of dealing with juvenile offenders, and consequently the court would be less used in proportion to the population than now. Secondly, he believed that lawyers would become the arbitrators of the country, and in time supersede to a large extent tho magistracy. As long as the Bar maintained its present reputation for integrity, magnanimity, wisdom, and impartiality, people would be content to submit their differences to lawyers. They were destined to become what Sir John Salrnond had called them, “the natural aristocracy of the community.”