More than 300 Justices of the Peace are descending on the Bay of Islands this week to mark 200 years since the first JP stepped ashore in New Zealand.
The 86th annual JP Conference is being held at the Copthorne Hotel in Waitangi, starting on Friday with speeches from Chief Justice Dame Sian Elias and a descendant of that first JP, the missionary Thomas Kendall.
Conference convenor Joy Quigley said Rev Kendall came ashore with Rev Samuel Marsden in 1814 after being appointed a JP by Governor Macquarie in New South Wales. Among other things, he was expected to control the recruitment of Maori as seamen on British ships, prevent ship-jumping of sailors and escaped prisoners, reduce interracial friction, keep order and control trade. Three chiefs - Ruatara, Hongi Hika and Korokoro - were given similar powers to work with him.
Ms Quigley said today's 6900 JPs faced less onerous tasks such as witnessing documents, taking statutory declarations and certifying copies. They could divorce couples, though not marry them, and some served in the courts as Judicial JPs. The conference was being hosted by the Far North JP Association, which had about 100 members.
More than 300 people were expected to attend, representing 29 JP associations around New Zealand, and would hear speeches from some of New Zealand's top judicial and legal minds. They included historian Dame Claudia Orange, Law Commission president Sir Grant Hammond, Courts Minister Chester Borrows, Chief District Court Judge Jan-Marie Doogue and Maori Language Commission chairman Erima Henare.
