Our History – Justice of the Peace – A Trusted Person

Justices of the Peace have been deployed over the years to decide, or officiate, at less-official occasions when impartiality is required:

• Picking the winner from 3,000 correct entries in a crossword competition in Hastings
• Approving payments for those short-paid in Race 5 at the Timaru trots, September 1975
• Drawing a ballot from 50 applications for a prized whitebait “stand” on the Hokitika River
• Witnessing times for horse races being adjusted because of faulty stop-watches
• Time-keeping at various attempts to set world records for sheep-shearing

Researched and compiled by Ric Carlyon