Orders of the Day — County Courts [Salaries and Allowances].

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at on 14 May 1924.

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Photo of Sir Ellis Hume-Williams Sir Ellis Hume-Williams , Bassetlaw

I do not like to sit quite silent while this Resolution is presented to the Committee, because I should like to congratulate the Attorney-General on having found time to bring in this Bill. It is long overdue, and it deals with a most deserving class. They have no union, and have never been able to strike, and have never, therefore, been able to enforce their demands in what, apparently, is the only modern way, but have awaited year after year the very tardy justice that this Bill is now meting out to them. I should like the right hon. Gentleman to give us some indication of the sort of scale of gratuities and pensions which are going to be given. I have not examined the Bill in any great detail, but I do not think it affords the information, and I think the Attorney-General might, perhaps, give the Committee some sort of idea as to what provision is being made for these men commensurate with the amount of service they have rendered to the State. I should also like to say a word about the aspect of the case which has been presented by my hon Friend behind me (Sir K. Wood) with reference to the importance of the County Courts, and the consequent importance of making them more attractive to the officials interested in them. County Courts are becoming more and more important. When I was a young man first called to the Bar, I will not say they were inefficient, but they had nothing like the jurisdiction or the efficiency which they boast of at present. The County Court Judges were recruited from a different class of men. The amount of work they had to do was large, but the scale of the work they had to deal with was comparatively unimportant. As every year has gone by the tendency has been to put more important work on to the County Courts. They now try a great number of cases which, when I was a boy, could only be tried in the High Courts. Now there is even a proposition that divorce jurisdiction should be conferred upon them. They try important cases which often take a whole day, and the jurisdiction is becoming every year more important. If that is so you must make it more worth while for men with brains to enter upon County Court work, and this Bill is a distinct step in that direction. By giving gratuities and pensions in the future it makes this a branch of the Civil Service which it is worth a man's while to enter, and you will recruit a better class of man for what is rapidly becoming one of the most important branches of the jurisdiction of the country.