Page 26 - Keeping the Peace

20 Keeping the Peace – A History of Honorary Justices in Victoria
As Victoria’s population faced such financial hardships, the value of the JP as an ordinary person who could understand the plight of others became perhaps even more relevant. This case was made by Mr Eager, MLA, in a lecture to JPs in 1936:
“It is a great thing for people to feel that, when adjudications are being made upon matters affecting their liberty, their property, and their money, they are getting justice, not from any official class, but from men of their own kind; and that is one of the strong reasons for the preservation of honorary justices – that they bring justice
to the ordinary man in the community, and that the ordinary man feels he is getting justice from his peers”. (Hear, hear!)36
However, the same speaker pointed out that the selection of these individuals needed to be above reproach:
“The real way to preserve the proper performance of the judicial duties of HJs sitting on the bench in courts of petty sessions is to take extraordinary care in their appointments, and see that they have the qualities which I have already described. A JP should be a man of good moral character, and of a kindly disposition; and if he is a man, what is called a gentleman. I don’t know about the qualifications for a lady – they are always good!” (Laughter)37
According to Mr Eager, a JP needed to be a ‘gentleman’ (or lady) as well as a person of the people. This requirement pointed to the wide and, perhaps at time, contradictory expectations of the role. As well as having the good judgement to adjudicate in cases before them at court, they also needed to be approachable and acceptable to all who required their advice and service.
36 ‘The Justice of the Peace’, 10 June 1936, p. 3, quote from lecture by Hon C H A Eager, MLA on ‘Are the powers of justices being unduly curtailed?’
37 ‘The Justice of the Peace’, 10 June 1936, p. 3, quote from lecture by Hon C H A Eager, MLA on ‘Are the powers of justices being unduly curtailed?’