TELEGRAMS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 45, 21 August 1913, Page 2

TELEGRAMS

"THE THIRD DEGREE" COMMENT BY MR. JUSTICE DENNISTON. [BY TELEGRAPH— SfBCIAL 10 THE POST ] CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. The " third degree " was the subject of mention by his Honour Mr. Justice Denniston yesterday, when addressing the jury in the case against Arthur Thomas Reid, who was arrested in connection with the recent burglaries. His Honour said that quite recently he had noticed that the term "the third degree" had been used in connection with the conduct of Ipolice officers. The term had been used in Christchurch and elsewhere; it had been" spoken and written with and without inverted commas. The term was well known, and people were aware of what was understood in America by the third degree There it was a system of authoritative examination, accompanied by torture, to induce prisoners to make incriminating statements. There had beerf nothing to suggest, however, that ariythinfe approaching that had taken place in New Zealand, but he could not help thinking that the application of the term " the third degree," if it continued, would lead people in England and elsewhere to - think that the- sithe practice that was known in ' America went on in the Dominion, and newspapers that were hostile to t>he Dominion would take the matter Up and make a lot of it. Dealing with the duties of police officers, his Honour remarked that the advice for a constable was to keep his mouth shut and his ears open. Mr. Justice Williams had said that where a prisoner approached a constable with a view to making an admission, the constable had every right to take advantage of the position. If the prisoner chose to discuss any matter with an officer the officer had a right to listen and to speak to him. It was a praolice at the time of arrest to extract during the period of surprise statements, that could be used against them. If a prisoner expressed the desire to speak there was no authority to show that advantage should not be taken of it by the Crown, but there was authority to show that the officer should listen as long as he did not compel or lead up to the conversation. The convictions of criminals in many cases resulted through the incriminatinng statements made by prisoners. ' [PBBSS ASSOCIATION.}