SUPREME COURT SITTINGS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9109, 8 June 1908, Page 5

SUPREME COURT SITTINGS.

WANGANUI, June 6. When the Supreme Court resumed this morning, Mr Barnicoat, senior member of the bar, drew Mr Justice Cooper's attention to the necessity of more frequent or lengthier sittings of the Court, and pointed out that civil cases frequently had to stand over, ai:d it was only due to the absence of criminal business that his Honour had been able to give time at the present sittings to civil cases. Mr Justice Cooper admitted the difficulty, and said that if business increased in the Wellington district, where there were only two Judges, as it had done in the past, some rem:dy must be found. Other towns in the Wellington district were in the same position as Wanganui, and there was an enormous pressure of work in\ Wellington alone—almost enough to keep two Judges going continuously. Judges were overworked, and last year, his Honour said, he had to sit on an Appeal Court right through the vacation and into January. Referring to the District Court, his Honour said it had been proposed in the Judiciary Bill introducd last session to abolish District Courts, but he had no knowledge whether that proposal would be introduced during the coming session of Parliament. If it were effected, and the business of the District Court was transferred to the Supreme Court, it might result in the necessity for the appointment of additional Judges to cope with the work. So far aa Wanganui's application was concerned, his Honour said that in districts usually under taken by Wellington Judges there wero fifteen circuit sittings in a year, irrespective of sittings in Wellington itself, and it was difficult under the circumstances to see how four sittings could be arranged for the circuits of Wanganui, Palmerston North, and Napier. There were at present only two Judges available for this work.