Page 33 - Keeping the Peace

Keeping the Peace – A History of Honorary Justices in Victoria 27
on the relationship the JP had with the accused. In some cases, their penalties had to be corrected by the clerk of courts.49 One case even included the first JP falling asleep during the case and the other being stone deaf!
The Attorney-General, the Honorable A G Rylah, issued a notification to government members to take care in who they recommended become a JP.50 The time for more stipendiary magistrates appeared to be over-due, and it was increasingly felt that JPs needed better training before they could sit on the bench. This clash of cultures between an ‘old world’ view that ordinary citizens should have a share in the administration of justice using ‘common sense’, and unease over JPs lack of training in the administration of justice, grew over the decades to come.
At the end of the 1950s, there was still a sense of the HJs Association being tied to the enduring English legal traditions. In an address given by Mr P H N Opas, QC to the Camberwell Group of HJAV on 24 November 1959,
“Your commission today is not very much different from that of the Justices of those early days [1327 King Edward III] and you are enjoined to keep the peace and ordinances and statutes made for “ the good of the peace and quiet rule and government of our people”’. One of the bulwarks of our British system of jurisprudence is that the people themselves have a very real share in the administration of their own laws.”51
49 The Argus, ‘Too many JPs abuse the law’, 10 June 1955, p. 4. 50 Victoria Parliamentary Debates, Legislative Assembly, 24 September 1958, Government Printer, p. 549. 51 ‘The Justice of the Peace’, Jan 1960, p. 1.