The Dominion MONDAY, MARCH 29, 1926. CONSIDERATION IN THE COURTS

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 156, 29 March 1926, Page 6

The Dominion MONDAY, MARCH 29, 1926. CONSIDERATION IN THE COURTS

In the form they are taking under the Child Welfare Act of last session children’s courts in this country will bear little-resemblance to an ordinary court of justice. It is, of course, only right that they should stand- clearly apart. Delinquent children, as well as those who are the victims of neglect or ill-treatment, are in a class distinct from that of offenders or unfortunates of more mature age. The new organisation of children’s courts is based on a recognition of the fact that the primary duty of the State towards both delinquent and neglected children is one of guardianship and protection. There is no clear dividing line between these two classes of children. Of the children who have to be dealt with as delinquents, a considerable proportion are the victims of a bad or unfavourable environment. In the happily limited extent to which such conditions exist in this country, the new children’s courts should serve an excellent purpose. It may be expected that they will be the means of ensuring a fair start in life for children who have been unfoitunate in their early upbringing and environment. . . While it will be approved generally from this standpoint, the separate organisation of children’s courts may be approved. also on other grounds. Sympathetic and helpful consideration obviously is due to" children of tender years even when they are brought up as offenders, but it is necessary to establish safeguards against allowing sympathy to develop into weakness involving a slack administration of justice where the treatment of adult offenders is concerned. In recent times, for instance, some of our courts have made a much more extended use than was originally intended oi contemplated of the discretionary power of withholding from publication the names of convicted offenders. Where some youthful offendei has been guilty of a lapse which is unlikely to be repeated, the suppression of his or her name may be well warranted. Regulated wisely on these lines, the suppression of names no doubt, is a useful adjunct to the system of probation.© ■ . . . ; • Cases have occurred, however, in which the practice ot withholding names from publication undoubtedly has been abused. In some instances, the reason assigned has been that publication of the name would impose a very severe penalty on the-offender by impairing his business or professional standing. Apart from what has actually been done in this way, applications for the suppression of names are continually being made by counsel on all sorts of grounds. It is apparently coming to be regarded as reasonable to base such, an application on the doubtless indisputable contention that, the publication of an offender’s name would cause him some inconvenience or distress. A halt evidently must be called if the reputation of our courts for impartiality and the even-handed administration of justice is to be maintained. It is only in exceptional circumstances, and within somewhat narrow limits that special consideration can properly be extended to any convicted offender, and those magistrates who are refusing to order the suppression of names unless really good reasons are shown for adopting that course are taking a stand fof which they must be. commended and which should be adopted as a basis for the procedure of the courts generally. . ' . The complete separation of children’s courts should simplify the adoption of a uniform procedure in the matter of the publication of names. It is not more obvious that children who come before the courts are entitled to all possible sympathy and consideration than that another and altogether different standpoint is necessary in dealing with adult offenders'. The primary demand here is that all alike should receive equal treatment under the law. In the extent to’which an unwise u: of the discretionary power of ordering the suppression of names has interfered with the observance of this standard, it undoubtedly should be revised.