NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1089, 30 March 1911, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

The- Chief Justice has vouchsafed one sign that he is aware of the feeling that has been aroused by his insistence on secrecy in regard to certain interesting and important Supreme Court proceedings. It was in his charge to the Grand Jury at Masterton last Monday that he gave the public this passing glimpse into the recesses of his mind. What he said does not seem to have attracted much attention outside the walls of the Courthouse. If it is to be taken as a first instalment of the judicial defence of secret Courts, it can only be regarded as evidence of the weakness of the position in which ■ the Chief Justice and certain of his colleagues have placed themselves. In the address at Masterton his Honour referred, as Judges often do on such ■ occasions, to the functions of the Grand Jury. There were some public men (he is reported to have said), and even Judges,- who thought that the Grand Jury system should bo abolished. He. was not himself of that opinion. There might not be much use for the Grand Jury now, but the time might come when it might be of great service. In a time of political excitement it might be required to stand between the people and the Crown. And so on, in a familiar strain, until, at the close he delivered himself of the rather suggestive statement that '.'the Grand Jury was a secret tri- | burial." .We suppose the inference is that as secrecy in the Grand Jury is not objected to, so secrecy in civil proceedings of public concern should be condoned. It can hardly bs necessary to point put that there is no real analogy. The business that comes before, the Grand Jury is publicly known beforehand, and has been investigated publicly in the Lower Court, the results of its deliberations are announced without delay, and its jurisdiction is temporary and narrowly restricted. Even so, examples have not been wanting to show that the Grand Jury is capable of thwarting the courso of justice. However, if Sin '■ionERT Stout chooses to make the Grand Jury a sort of dialectical shelter for the recent action of the Supreme Court, we shall, reply that secret tribunals arc not adapted to dispense even-handed justice. They tend to do injustice, like the Star Chamber, or to do next to nothing, like the Grand Jury. In the one alternative, they aro abominable; in the other, as the Chief Justice remarked, "some public men, and even Judges, think they should ha abolished." However, as we stated at the outset of this note, there is no real analogy between the Grand Jury and a secret sitting of the Court on a question of public concern. .

We hope the members of the Hospital Board have begun to think about arrangements for the ceremony of hying the foundation stoiw of the new Children's Hospital. The

foundations themselves arc practically completed, and the brickwork has been begun, so that the time for action has come. It happens also that Mr. Hugh V/arp, who gave such splendid assistance in raising the building fund, will shortly be hero again on his last visit io Wellington as an actor-manager. It would be a graceful act on the part of the Board to hold the function v/hile Mr. Ward is in our midst and to invite him to take some part in it, The public are grateful to the popular comedian and his company for the generous effort which carried the Mayoress's fund to a much greater and earlier success than anybody had anticipated. Apart from the £SGO (and its accompanying Government subsidy) which, by a handsome personal donation and the self-sacrificing work of himself and his company, ho added to the fund, Mr. Ward originated most of the popular enthusiasm which led to a sum of about £7000 being collected or promised within a few daj's. The people of Wellington, wc are sure, would like their gratitude to Mb. Ward to be expressed in any function that may be arranged for the laying of the foundation stone of the institution : which ho so generously helped them to establish.