5 NOVEMBER 1943, Page 14

STIPENDIARY AND LAY MAGISTRATES

SIR, With reference to Janus's note in the issue of October 29th I suggest that the initiative for the appointment of a stipendiary magistrate comes from the town and that the town has to pay his salary or part of it. I cannot verify this at the moment. Probably the root of the matter is deep in the past. A town procured a right to administer the lower justice, free of the feudal lord, and consequently had to pay the costs.

My view of the lay magistrates and of their clerks in both town and country is less favourable than Janus's, but there is no large volume of popular dissatisfaction and not much prospect of improving the arrange- ments.—Yours faithfully, F. GATES. Fairlight Lodge, Fairseat, Sevenoaks, Kent.