BIRTH CONCEALMENT

Evening Star, Issue 23745, 28 November 1940, Page 15

BIRTH CONCEALMENT

PROBATION FOR YOUNG WOMAN CHIEF JUSTICE'S CCMMENT ON POLICE EXAMINATION [Per United Press Association.] WELLINGTON, November 27. In admitting a young woman to probation on charges of permitting the use of an instrument and attempting to conceal a birth, the Chief Justice commented upon the police conduct of the examination. Emphasising that the case called for the strictest inquiry, Sir Michael Myers said it was perfectly plain that at no time was the prisoner warned. “ This whole matter was the subject of examination by a Royal Commission in England. Whatever rules are laid down they must be operated with due regard, for the interests of justice, and the interests of justice do not necessarily lie in securing convictions. Justice is not a car of Juggernaut, which is, intended to mutilate everybody who comes within its ambit.” Addressing the prisoner, Sir Michael Myers said he had consulted two other judges and proposed with very < great hesitation to grant probation. His Honour said that the problem must be attacked add solved if the nation was to survive the difficulties and perils of the future. “ I would liko to add that the problem cannot be solved by an extension or continuance of the conditions whereby people, whether by _ preference or by compulsion, live their lives in flats, flatlets, or rooms in apartment houses. It is because of the seriousness of the question that I feel some diffidence and hesitation in granting probation; but, first of all, I would rer gard it as unfortunate if you were ’to be made the victim of, shall I say, present-day conditions, and the unfortunate opinions of a large section of the community.”