LAW REFORMS

Observer, Volume 6, Issue 150, 28 July 1883, Page 3

LAW REFORMS

■WthsUj!' Mr Bryee is performing the labours of ' . a Heresies in cleansing that Augean stable, the '"... JSTativ^Jiands . Cpurfc, Mr Connolly, Minister ■■'. of Jiisfcice, ; might render some service to the -". eoWiy Iby extending his investigations into the '' ':■ BJstriefc • and Resident Magistrates' Coiirt3. As .'; , long as appointments to clerkships and the Bench ; are made from political motives, regardless of - '' fitness and capacity, the Courts will not be free : ; fron?.. scandals. .What can any man do, who has v received his appointment as a reward either for iia own political support of the party in power, ' or i»f or support rendered by some clique to which ; he' b'elongs'i but have a bias towards his friends ; anct benefactors ? The man who will not do so -'-'' is regarded by those who secured his appointment '■■' : as a traitor arid an ingrate. It is one of the mis--1 /fortunes of this colony that official capacity is • commonly judged by a political standard. ■".. ..' >' . — ♦-

''.--. It is notorious that the most persistent attempts ■a, -have been, made to secure the removal or dis missalof a magistrate in the Waikato whose only fault is that he received his appointment at the .Bands of a former Ministry, and has con- /'■/' eientiousiy refused to play into the hands of a ' ,", ■ dominant clique, who9e interest it is to keep the ; '..existing' administration in office. Hitherto he has contrived to escape the pitfalls and snares laid, in his path, and to earn a reputation for his ./partial and fearless administration of justice. It .;'i is otherwise, however, in many other districts that ' ,/. ire could name. Not long ago, for example, a . ; „'".• Resident Magistrate in a West Coast tewn was so r ;. completely demoralised that his own bailiff ■' factually had a warrant for his apprehension. He '';'' * .escaped the indignity of being arrested and in- ■<■ j : ,.' careerate'd in his own lock-up because he had the {'!.' gopii- fortune to belong to that series of concentric ;lf.y ring*, so intermarried that their individual re>i:?lafaphsliips. have become too complicated for ..v\\Waoib definition,— who rule the place. It was #f' : l notorious that in those days the scales of justice '0s kicked the beam for the highest bidder. Even ' ; : J r\ now ; we learn on the authority of a reliable 7 /--correspondent that hearsay evidence is received i '■; 'in the same Coiirt. WtrOi •. ' _ ♦ _ : • ■•