1 HUMAN TESTIMONY.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 582, 10 August 1909, Page 9

HUMAN TESTIMONY.

ITS LIMITATIONS. .In ;a judgment relating to .a claim for damages arising out of a collision (says the' Christchurch "Press")) Mr. Justice Denniston made some interesting observations as to the weaknesses of human testimony bearing upon such incidents. "A. collision," his Honour said, "is, as,a rule, unexpected 'and unlooked for. It, and the incidents which immediately lead up to it, occupy usually a very small space of time—how small is not always, nor easily, appreciated. Very often tho time is measured'' in seconds. In that time onlookers have to receive, the impression- of all they, seo or hoar, or think - they, see or hear/ When caltcd upon to speak_ to these they have to recall these impressions, and out of them to.reconstruct the scene as.they believe they saw it. With our knowledge of the' physiology of the' physical and mental processes of sensation-. and memory and of tho' fallibility of human 'testimony, in tho most favourable conditions, it is not surpris-ing-that there is no class of case in respect of .which it is more difficult to obtain anythfng like accurate proof. ' I have known mon whose veracity of observation were high, and whoso' veracity was unquestioned, give absolutely irreconcilable accounts of a strcot accident in ' details' where, one ■'would have supposed-that mistake was impossible. .. this the present case is a good illustration; One man makes a formal statement to a solicitor ,that' he-helped a • woman'before a •man—next day' he returns to say that on reflection he finds' that he had reversed tho order. Witnesses; say they-saw tho man and woman hurled from the trap; nro equallv positive that each stepped out of it There is testimony that tho woman never fell at- allthat she fell' and never moved from the spot.where she fell: that up. and never moved from the spot; and that she got np, and mado a number of steps the spot. The most difficult questions to determine. are those of time and space. A3 to these, arid generally, where thote is a conflict of testimony, I -prefer, other- things •being equal, to. rcl.v on the Widfinco Of tJtOSO. •who had made their observations beforo tho confusion of the actual collision.