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TUESDAY, MARCH 22, 19... Legislature Discusses Ap-- pointment and Control of Magistrates r § 5 RANEY'S BILL UNDER FIRE . eeentmnmenmenmsssonnmmmmmemecmemmmete | Legal members of the Legislature * had a field day yesterday, when the House went into committee on_the' Attorney--General's bill to provide for the appointment of Magistrates with extended spheres of jurisdic-- tion. Following a debate, in which Opposition members predominated, Ibecause of the absence of legal lu-- » | minaries to the right of Mr. Speaker, \the principle of the bill was endors-- led, Hon. Mr. Raney assuring the House that the Government Kad no intention of "turning things loose" in respect of Magisterial appoint-- ments. € Criticism of the measure centred chiefly upon the clauses providing * for the appointment in any munici-- pality of a Magistrate with "extend-- _ed jurisdiction," who might super-- isede, or act in conjunction with, lMaglstrates already allotted to that area. a "'Indlgnity of Dismissal," |\ _ _'"There is no superannuation in | _ connection with Magistrates," ex-- plained the Attorney--General. "Some Magistrates are inactive because of 'age; some are inactive because of incompetency. In either case we do not want to put upon these men, many of whom have served long * years and to the extent of their capacity, the indignity of dismissal." The bill, he went on, would meet the situation, especially in exceptional cases, by permitting the employ-- ment of specially--appointed officials. H. H. Dewart expressed strong objection to the '"over--riding'"' pow-- _ _ ers of the secondary appointee. The original appointee, he said, would be * in an anomalous position. Some per-- sons would choose one Magistrate and some the other, and the meas-- ure in general, he felt, was such that '"the further it is looked into the worse it gets." Hon. G. H. Ferguson described the bill as "drastic legislation," with-- out which, he thought, the problems of the Magistracy might be solved. Magistrates expressing unwillingness to enforce the law, he said, should be dismisséd; those inactive because of age or infirmity could easily be dealt with without such legislation. Favors Impeachment. "I don't think this Legislature should give to any Minister or any Government the authority to go the limit this measure contemplates," he said. He was inclined, he said, to favor legislation that would render Police Magistrates immune from summary dismissal; such officers, in view of their present wide powers and responsibilities, should, he thought, be removed from office solely by the method of impeach-- ment, as--were County Judges. This suggestion was concurred in by J. Walter Curry, Southeast To-' * wpnto, who thought that occupants of the Magisterial Bench should be upon the same plane, in every way, as County Judges. Several minor amendments to the bill were reported.* y s