THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20, 1910. RELIEVING MAGISTRATE'S.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10023, 20 April 1910, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20, 1910. RELIEVING MAGISTRATE'S.

It is an extraordinary thing that although there are oyer thirty stipendiary magistrates in the Dominion, occupying positions which claim the whole of their time and energy, no provision fs made by the appointment of permanent relieving magistrates to fill the many temporary vacan* ! cies arising from various causes. The custom is to appoint temporarily aged and retired magistrates, and We have actually had thus appointed in Central Taranaki a gentleman of eighty-two years, although sixty-five years is the age of compulsory retirement. It i 3 not, in the opinion of the "New Zealand Herald." in any may derogatory to this worthy exmagistrate to condemn the system as utterly and wholly bad, and as one for which no reasonable excuse or defence can be offered. In the very nature of things an aged and retired man becomes rusty and out of date I in matters of law, even supposing ' that he retains the promptitude arid keenness which are essential to mag- J isterial adjudication, but are rarely l found among the many virtues of ; advancing years. Tbe universal

recognition of the gradual disqualification imposed by age in matters magisterial is the ground and justification for the retiring age being fixed at sixty-five, in spite of the fact that many able and efficient magistrates are still fully competent I at that age for the arduous and exhausting work. There is no excuse for the temporary appointment of aged and retired magistrates to fill vacancies, because the difficulty—if it were a difficulty—would be quite eaai'y and simply met by the adoption of a system of relieving magistrates, by the appointment for that purpose of competent and efficient | men of working age. This system is j followed by every large commercial \ institution, and is one for which no

advocacy should be needed in this j connection. Two or three relieving ( magistrates would be Kept fully employed throughout the Dominion, and their appointment would do away with the moat objectionable practice of calling back aged ex-magistrates to resume functions with which they must be out of touch. Dr. Fmdlay is energetically employed in drafting varioub measures of reform, and we would point out to him that a reform is here called for which cannot be opposed, and is necessary to the proper administration of the I Department of Justice