SECRET EVIDENCE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1296, 27 November 1911, Page 4

SECRET EVIDENCE.

SOME RECENT CASES. PLAIN SPEAKING BY Mil. FISHEB. "I have l>ecn asked to deal with the Jloflilt judgment," said Mr. F. M. 13. ii S M Cr ut his mcoti,1 K nt tl]o Druids' "M, in Tnrnnnki Street, ou Friday '"Bill. This whs a mushroom of recent growth. Day by day in this country, through what was called our remedial and beneficent legislation, wo were drifting away from what had been laid down Uy (ho great statesmen of n hundred years ago There had been a time when it would havo boon sacrilcgcous to offer any criticism of a Sovereign or of the Judges, but modern eyes saw that it was not only nccossarv, but a dntv at times n C .'he"\T ,'H « ,lm i»if ,ralio » of ustiee 1 the Jloflitt cos,, there had been an lluslrnliou ol evidence which had not ben, taken „, open Court having influenced tho Judge. And he was going (o give, ns another illustration. W ino mrliculars about a. raso in CliriMehurchot evidence, upon which a magistral*) hud taken a very drastic action, and given a judgment Ironi which, somo months later, ho had refused to hear any U u. peal.

As to tho Mofiitt case, Dm Chief Ju,-. ice had been influenred almost cutirely by evidence collects d by the poliee, anil not submitted to tho Court. 'No person should be dealt with in Court by n Judga who had formed a judgment upon cvi. deuce which had not seen the light of day. Perhaps it had been an error, though an error made with the best of intentions, to permit the Judgo to clear lh« Court and take a caso in secret. "What about: Ihe Kennedy Macdonald case? (Applause.) Do you think (here is ouvono else in New Zealand who could have got those proceedings conducted as llioy were? ("No!" "No!") I for ono do not. I think it is a bad practice (o havo in this country ono justice for .legislative Councillors and another for other people." (Loud applause.) The other caso lie had referred to was, he staled, one in which Christchurch people had been accused before, the Court of having ill-treated a child, The parents had wanlcd to lie heard, but had not been allowed to Ik. In ten. minutes the child had been committed lx> on institution. Later the people wanted to havo tho cas'o hoard again, but, no, that had been declined; the matter had "boon shooed up by one of Sir John Findlay's constables."

"When you come to realise that it is llio degenerating tendency of tho Governmenl of tho day, not to elevate the Judicial Bench, but, to drag it down, why should we offer any apology lor criticising tho Bench? When we poo old men treated as I hare seen them treated in Court, bcause they could not afford counsel—because they wero old, because (hey were feeble, because they could be boosted—when we bane that treatment it is time we had men who stood up for what is ripht. While thero is justice for tho public there must also be justice for magistrates." (Applause.)