NEW COURTHOUSE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 February 1942, Page 4

NEW COURTHOUSE

OPENED IN INVERCARGILL. OBSERVATIONS BY MINISTER. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) INVERCARGILL, This Day. Invercargill now possesses a courthouse which, for utility and dignity of design, cannot be. excelled in the Southern Hemisphere, according to the Minister of Justice. Mr Mason, who declared the new building open yesterday. Reference to an important occasion in the history of the administration of justice in Invercargill was made by Bench and Bar at a short session of the Supreme Court, held after the opehing ceremoqy.

Remarks by Mr Justice Kennedy, who presided, were replied to by. the President of the Southland Law Society, Mr N. L, Watson. At the official opening the Minister said: “It is not necessary for me to emphasise the vital importance of the administration of justice in otir democratic social system. It is essential that justice should continue to be administered under all conditions if chaos is to be avoided and a rule of law is to prevail. This applies equally, if not more so. in times of stress such as now exist. The present war has brought with it an inevitable and unavoidable amount of emergency legislation and regulations. While many of these regulations are necessarily drastic, in the public interest it must not be forgotten that in their- administration the same rules and principles of justice hitist be applied by the Courts as in times of peace.”