A QUESTIONABLE POWER

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 13908, 6 December 1910, Page 6

A QUESTIONABLE POWER

The unwisdom of leaving important Bills to he dealt with in the closing hours of thc session was exemplified only too clearly in the case of the Libel Bill. As it left the Houso of Re-

presentatives that measure, though not going so far in protecting the Press as could have been wished, was a useful and welcome instalment of a muchneeded reform. In the Legislative Council, however, the Attorney-General moved the addition of a clause making the publication of a defamatory libel an offence punishable on summary conviction before a magistrate by a fine of

£100, or three months' imprisonment. In regard to such a charge, it shall be a good defence that tho matter complained of is true, and that its puolication is fortfie public benefit, but tho latter has first to be proved, and if that defence fails, the truth of the statement will count for nothing. Dr. Findlay asserted that the new clause

was not for the protection of any one man, but it is impossible to think that it would have been introduced but for the incident of last week. That, however, is not the point of which we complain. It is the power that the clauso gives to Magistrates that makes it objectionable, for one reason because tho Magistracy aro not as independent as Supreme Court Judges, and for another because th© clause furnishes another illustration of the Government's undemocratic dislike for juries. The best men among the Magistrates enjoy,; we believe, as much public confidence as any Judge, but they are not all _f this class, and as it is impossible to pick and choose among them, -we Jo not think any of them should have the power of deciding whether any .particular statement about a public man was or was not made in the public interest. Mr Massey and Mr Herdman, who criticised the clause from this point of view, did so to some extent at a disadvantage, 6ecause, in common with all decent-minded people, they naturally sympathised with the object of the clause, as it applied to one particular case. The | near approach of the end of tbe session did not permit of the matter being postponed for calmer consideration, and the clause consequently passed, affording another proof of; the danger of hustling important measures through at the fag-end of the session.