The Dominion. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1911. AN IMPROPER APPOINTMENT

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1284, 13 November 1911, Page 4

The Dominion. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1911. AN IMPROPER APPOINTMENT

, « The appointment of Judge Jones to be President of the Tairawhiti Maori Land Board, while continuing to be a Judge of the Native Land Court was reported in our issue of last Saturday. Wo do not know of any objection on personal grounds to this appointment. Judge Jones apparently _ ranks next in seniority to the Chief Judge, and is doubtless more than competent to perform all duties of the lower station which is now to be combined with his judicial position. But the question arises whether these two offices ought to be held by one man. The vacancy which Judge Jones is to fill at the head of the Tairawhiti Maori Land Board was caused by the resignation of Mr. Alexander Keefer, who complained that in the exorcise of the judicial functions of his office he had been subjected to a Departmental interference, which, as a matter of principle, he was bound to resent. Mr. .Herries from his place in Parliament elicited a Ministerial explanation, and the correspondence between the Under-Secretary and Mr. Keefer was tabled. It was perfectly clear that there had been Departmental intervention amounting almost to dictation, but Sir Jaiies Carroll held that the matter upon which, the Department and Me. Keefer had differed was of an administrative, ana nolrct a judicial, character, and that the Under-Sec-retary therefore had a perfect right to give directions as to what ought or ought not to be done. Mr. Herries, however, still_ considered that Mr. Keeper's judicial independence had been interfered with. Tho Native Minister did not go the length of saying that the President of a Maori Land Board is simply a Civil Servant without any of the functions of judicature. That may or may not have been his opinion, for he was characteristically vague. But in cither case it follows from tho Ministerial statement that Mr. Keefer's succcssor has to perform both judicial and administrative functions. That is to say, when he presides at the Board ho may have to act according to instructions from Wellington, and when he sits in the Court he must be perfectly independent. Of course, Mr. Jones may be able to work in harmony with the Department all the morning and forget it all the afternoon. Wc do not question either his ability or his integrity, but wc do say that such dual positions are an infraction of the principle of clear and complete separation between the Executive and the judiciary. What Lord Justice Fartvell said in the English Court; of Appeal last December in the caso of Dyson against the AttorneyGeneral is just as true in New Zealand: If Ministerial responsibility were moro than tho moro shadow of a name, tho matter would be loss important, but, as tilings wore, the Courts were the only defence of the liberty of the subject against Departmental aggression, What sort of defence would the Courts be against Departmental aggression if it were customary for the Judges to be _ also Departmental officers 1 That is what appears to be coming to pass in the Native land administration of this country. One of the eight Judges of the Native Land Court is also District Land Registrar at Gisborne. Another is President of the Waiariki Maori Land Board, and now we haye a third appointment to a similar position. And the other clay it camc out in the course of the Mokau disclosures that a Maori Land Board President can act, with the full approval of the Government, as trustee for a private company, whose dealings have to be reviewed by his Board. The presidency of a Maori Land Board is certainly a remarkable position. It may be held, as in the case of Mr. Walter Dinnie, by a person of no technical qualifications or experience in Native matters. Its occupant may be, on the one hand a Judge, or on.the other a trustee for a speculative syndicate. Another evil aspect of the practice of giving administrative appointments to Judges is that it opens up .fresh possibilities of bestowing extra emoluments upon them. Under the present system, this matters less in the caso of Native Land Court Judges than in .the case of the Supremo Court Bench, because—to the disgrace of the country—even the ordinary salaries of tho former, being placed year by year on the Estimates, arc subject to tho control of the Minister. It has always been difficult for a Native Land Court Judge to feel quite independent, and Sir James Carroll has made it more difficult than ever. But no warning will impress him. The public conscience has rarely been more deeply moved than when it became aware of the "Secret Case,''' but that sorry chapter was hardly closed when the Native Minister'sent the Chief Justice to the Cook Islands to hold an inquiry behind closed doors. And now, after weighty protests have been made against giving extra to Judges, he quietly supplies, with the acquiescence of Cabinet, yet another instance of disregard for the necessity of safeguarding the independence of the Bench. The incident is a fresh illustration of the present Ministry's habit of ignoring the first principles of sound government and constitutional liberty.