The Dominion FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 1911. ANOTHER SECRET INQUIRY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1161, 23 June 1911, Page 4

The Dominion FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 1911. ANOTHER SECRET INQUIRY.

If the public have not yet got past the stage of being shocked at anything that may happen in connection with the conduct of public affairs within the Dominion, they will be stirred to anger and disgust at the news which we publish this , morning concerning the inquiry into the administration of the Cook Islands. Our readers are familiar with the serious nature of the allegations made against the Administration at these Islands. We published in full soup weeks ago the correspondence which passed between Dr. Dawson and the Resident Commissioner regarding the hospital at Karotonga. It will be remembered that Dn. Daivson had certain urgent surgical cases requiring iminediate_ treatment, and; communicated with the Resident' Commissioner respecting the use of the hospital, which had been gazetted as open for the reception of patients many months previously. The attitude of the Commissioner, the disclosures made, and the delays which followed were in themselves sufficient to demand a full investigation. The position as disclosed was really shocking. But the hospital matter was only one of several serious complaints. Mr. Hosking made a number of definite charges regarding the procedure in the Courts presided over by the Chief Justice of the Islands, who is also the Resident Commissioner, and various allegations of a more or less , serious natnre were also made concerning certain acts and omissions on the part of the Resident Commissioner. Had such charges been levelled against any public official on the mainland of New Zealand public opinion would have immediately forced the Government to institute the fullest public inquiry. To attempt to hush up a matter so vitally affecting the public welfare would not have been tolerated for a single moment. But the Cook Islands are many hundreds of miles away, and the white population is small, and although the men and women there arc our fellow citizens and are enually entitled to the protection which is afforded by the proper administration of the law, and have an equal right to claim redress of their grievances, it was only after months of agitation through the columns of the press and in Parliament that any pretence of meeting the demand for inquiry was made. And what a pretence it has now proved! We learn to-day that instead of the full public inquire which alone could have tested the merits of the charges and countercharges made, a secret inquiry is to be held, and the witnesses are not to be examined on oath. The Chief Justice, Sir Robert Stout, flhn was dispatched to Rarotonga to conduct the investigations, has decided that the whole of his 'inquiries shall be carried on in secret. We should have thought that Sir Robert Stout would have had enough of secret tribunals, but apparently this is not the case.

Tho result of th; Chief Justice's refusal to take the evidence on oath and to admit the pres3 has been that the principal parties to the charges made have declined to produce thr> evidence which they have to support them. It was made very clear to the Government before Sir Robert Stout left for the Cook Islands that no inquiry which did not provide for the fullest publicity, and with the witnesses examined on oath, would be satisfactory. It, however, has apparently suited the purposes of the Government to hold a secret inquiry, with the witnesses unsworn, and with no record of evidence beyond the Judge's notes. When Sir Jajies Prendergast conducted-a similar, inquiry in 1893 the witnesses were not sworn, but the proceedings were open to the public, the witnesses were subjected? to crossexarmuation, and.representatives of tho press wore present taking a full report of the evidence. In 1898 Sir Jajies Prendergast, as the result of his investigations conducted in public, deemed it advisable to recommend the removal of the then Resident Commissioner, despite the fact that it was admitted that in certain respects he had rendered good service. The evidence taken at that inquiry was published with his Honour's report, and the public were afforded an opportunity of forming an independent opinion of tho merits of the matter. In the present case not only have we secret sittings, but Sir Rodert Stout was unable to give any assurance even that tho evidence taken would be inad-3 public with hi? report. How far the responsibility forthis state of things rests with the Chief Justice we cannot at present say. We can only direct public attention to the methods which are growing up in the Dominion, and to enter our protest against the persistent endeavour that is being made to hush up and keep from the public matters upon which trey should be kept fully informed. This Cook Islands affair is not going to be hushed up, despite the decision to deal with it in secret. A representative of The Dominion, who accompanied tho Commission to the Islands, will keep the readers of the paper fully informed as to the proceedings so far as they are obtainable; but tho whole question will also be thoroughly ventilated in Parliament. It is a clangorous thing to attempt to smother a public complaint by coy-

ering it with a veil of secrecy. Curiosity is aroused, suspicion created, and the worst interpretation possible is placed on the actions of those who refuse to afford the public the opportunity they are rntilled to of judging for themselves on the whole of the facts disclosed in the open glare of full publicity. The question will inevitably be asked: V'by should charges made publicly, concerning the administration of public officials and affecting the public interests, be heard in secret? There is even less excuse for secrecy in this matter than in the Macdofald case.