Page 8 - Keeping the Peace

2 Keeping the Peace – A History of Honorary Justices in Victoria
the court, the number of days they attended the court and the number of cases disposed by each.4 This was because the demand for their services was high. Most were from Melbourne, but rural areas were well covered. For example, Foster Fyans of the Geelong district lived two miles from the court and heard 1,928 cases across 405 days. Others, such as Francis Henty of Portland lived 65 miles from the court and still managed to hear four cases in as many days.
By 1859 there were 21 JPs and 93 Courts of Petty Sessions.
On 2 December 1854 during the Eureka Stockade at Bakery Hill, Ballarat, a JP, Mr Webster, had to perform the duty known as ‘reading the riot act’ to quell rebelling diggers who were protesting about what they saw as unfair laws.
In the Magistrates’ Manual for the Colony of Victoria 1852, the Honorable Justice William A’Beckett, the state’s fourth Supreme Court Judge, expressed respect and gratitude for JPs:
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“The community is much indebted to those gentlemen who gratuitously act as JPs, when it is considered how few are so situated as to be able to afford leisure for attention to the duties of the office, without some pecuniary sacrifice, and not without much personal inconvenience. Such a class deserves all the respect
and encouragement which their position prima facie invites; and without any disparagement to the services and efficiency of the Stipendiary Magistrates, it is hoped that the unsalaried holders of commissions of the peace will always form a considerable portion of the Victorian Magistracy.”5
www.parliament.vic.gov.au/papers/govpub/VPARL1853-54NoC8.pdf (accessed 21 Oct 2014) William A’Beckett, Magistrates’ Manual for the Colony of Victoria, 1852, p. iii
By 1859 there were 21 JPs and 93 Courts of Petty Sessions.