Television The Impartial Mr Sim

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31762, 20 August 1968, Page 9

Television The Impartial Mr Sim

What an adornment Alastair Sim would be to the Christchurch bench. As the judge in the 8.8. C. comedy series “Misleading Cases” he brings a breath of fun and whimsy to a usually sombre arena. His virtues have obviously not been lost on those who decide advancement for the judiciary. In a mere handful of episodes the benign old gentleman has been rocketed from the position of magistrate to judge of the High Court—with the House of Lords in prospect, if Mr Haddock knows anything. In our own courts, of course, Alastair Sim might find less to crack his legal jokes about They have their share of persistent litigants, some of whom act as their own counsel, but we have yet to see such a one as Mr Haddock. Unlike most of us, Mr Haddock does not lie down under small injustices, whether they be inflicted upon him by the wealthy, petty officialdom or by an officious waiter, as in Sunday night’s episodes, “The Last Glass ” At the slightest outrage to

his sense of natural justice, Mr Haddock is likely to slap a lawsuit on the offender, or to leap to his own defence, and seems prepared to fight the matter to the last legal ditch. But thanks to the wonderful rapport he has established with his own “tame judge” he never has to go to appeal. With a sly mixture of flattery and humility, Mr Haddock has completely won the bench over. On Sunday it only remained for the jury to be convinced and here, his Lordship was able to help.

He was so much help, in fact, that there would seem to be ample grounds for an appeal by Mr Haddock’s opponent Acting “entirely on your own assessment of the facts,” the jury arrived at exactly the decision and the sum of damages that his Lordship invited them to find. It will be on the N.Z.B.C.’s head if our courts are now plagued with litigants encouraged by Mr Haddock's successes—and the best of British justice to them. * * « At first sight “Compass”

would seem to have done a valuable public service in presenting for our assessment the alternatives to New Zealand’s present foreign policy. But in fact, the programme said little that was new. The views expressed by the proponents of the various alternatives have all been published before, either in the daily newspapers, in periodicals or by the N.Z.B.C. itself. No doubt it was useful to give these "long shots” of defence policy even wider publicity, but stating the cases is not enough. No conclusions were drawn, no evalutions made.

“Compass” could have helped us by testing one against the other. As we heard from such respected citizens as Dr W. B. Sutch, the former Secretary of Industries and Commerce, and Mr J. K. Hunn, the former Secretary of Defence, there are cogent reasons for looking into policies of neutrality, non - alignment, qualified alignment, and so on. Conversely, each proposal has its flaws, but what were they? We were not told. lan Cross could have been

more than a mere master-of-ceremonies. In a different format, the policy alternatives could have been stated in small compass (to coin a phrase) and the bulk of the programme devoted to evaluation. The issue is a live one, exercising the minds and emotions of New Zealanders probably more than ever before.

There seems to be a very good case for a follow-up programme. We have heard the statements of claim, but the jury cannot retire until the witnesses have been cross-examined and the case summed up. * * *

Has one of our bastions of truth and freedom been breached by British counterintelligence? From the opening episode of the new 8.8. C. thriller “The Paradise Makers” it seems that the Auckland “Star” was “used” by M. 1.7 to establish a “cover” for the research physicist James Creig as “Dr James Gregory—the blueeyed hope of the Antipodes.”