MR MANSFORD’S REPLY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 121, 22 April 1938, Page 8

MR MANSFORD’S REPLY.

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —The Mayor’s reply to Mr Christensen is of interest not only to that gentlemen, but to every man and woman who value the justice of the British law courts. Thence I will not be accused of trespassing on Mr Christensen’s ground by referring to the matter. When a person appears before a British Court to be condemned or acquitted on the evidence adduced, that Court is open to the public, unless cleared by order of the Judge for the hearing of unsavoury evidence. Mr Mansford states that the evidence taken at the municipal inquiry is private and confidential, and is not for public discussion, an astounding statement seeing that public men were on trial before a public body, responsible to the ratepayers. If that is so, then the public are not ill a position to state whether the Council’s verdict was against the weight of evidence or not. Is that Mr Mansford’s, or the Council’s conception of British justice ? If so, it is a travesty of British judicial methods. Surely democracy is on trial itself.—l am, etc., W. F. CUTLER, 47 Ada Street, Palmerston North.