ABOLITION OF DISTRICT COURTS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3206, 4 June 1909, Page 7

ABOLITION OF DISTRICT COURTS.

MASTERTON DEPUTATION WAIT ON DR. FINDLAY. A deputation, ! representing the legal profession in Masterton, the Chamber of Commerce and the Borough Council, waited on the Min ister for Justice (the Hon. Dr. Find', lay), at tb ask that the District fiotift at Masterton should not be abolished, unless some satisfactory substitution is made, ' Mr W. G. Beard said that the deputation were acting for the general public, in making their application. The District Court at Masterton had been established, he thought, for nearly 30 years, and had done a large amount of very useful work. The deputation did not ask that the District Court should be retained, provided another Court were substituted, which the business satisfactorily. He thought that the growth of the district would justify the Supreme Court in holding circuit sittings in Masterton. They recognised that there must be some delay before the Supreme Court could sit at Masterton, unless the judges would put up with some degree of inconvenience in regard to Court premises. The Minister said that the judges had already shown readiness in„that direction, by agreeing to take cases at Hokitika, Greymouth and Weatpoit, where the Court accommodation was certainly no better [than at Masterton. Mr Beard said that if delay was necessary, the deputation'would like to Bee the District Court continued aa a purely temporary institution, Mr P. L. Boilings, representing the Mas teuton Borough Council, said that t*s DfcJatfct Court did not meet i f\ffge*it requirements of the district, and its procedure was obsolete and inconvenient, but to abolish the District Court without providing a reasonable substitute would b? t9 ? n : crease the inconvenience. Ha did not think that the Expense of circuit sittings of the Supreme Court would be nearly so mucu as th3l of periodiI cal sittings of the District Court.

M H. C. L.' Robinson, representing the TruEt LanJs Trust, which is effecting an exchange that will proVide a site for the new Courthouse, said it had been arranged for a Bill to be pat through the House this session to faltify the arrangement. The 'irust Laflds Trcst, for their own reasons, were anxious to accelerate the completion of this fnatter. Mr A. R. Bunoy, Grown Prosecutor of the Wairarapa District Court, said that nine out of ten criminal cases in the Wairarapa had to' come to Wellington owing to tne limited jurisdiction of that Court'. Tfrere would be an immense saving of expense if circuit sittings if the Supreme Court were held in Ma'sterton.

The' Minister replied that the Government had no intention to deprive any locality now served by a District 1, Court of the judicial facilities which at present it enjoyed. The Government could not be asked at this time of'retrenchment to spend unnecessary* money in erecting a Supreme Court in Masterton, but he thought that a fair substitution could be made, and art"even'more efficient judicial service afforded than that of the District Court. The expense of ' bringing prisoners from Masterton to Wellington was trebled in' the ease' of other portions of'the Dominion. • By abolishing the District Courts, giving special jurisdiction in ~ some cases to magistrates, and' having Supreme Court sessions at ! sorneof ', the larger centres, he thought £1;000 could be saved throughout the Dominions in the transport of prisoners alone, and this would be' only a portion of "he total saving. The judges could not do impossibilities, but in any proper case there were indications that they would agree to take the cases —civil and criminal — that would arise in such a place as Masterton. He could only consult the Chief Justice on the subject, and that he would be pleased to do. He was very much in sympathy with the application. There might be a brief interval necessary for adjustment after the abolition of the District Courts at the end of this month, but the interval before the institution of a new service would be as short as possible.—"Dominion