RAROTONGA INCIDENT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 160, 8 June 1939, Page 9

RAROTONGA INCIDENT.

APPEAL COURT DECISION. l’es Press Association. WELLINGTON. June 7. The Court of Appeal delivered judgment to-day, by a majority, upholding the grant of certiorari made by His Honour Dir Justice Reed on October 14, 1935, quashing the determination made by John Henry Boyes, as Public Service Commissioner, in- respect of the respondent, Albert Carlyon, chief police officer at Rarotonga. In March, 1938, a charge of insubordination was laid against Carlyon by Stephen John Smith, the then Resident Commissioner and acting-Chief Judge, the charge arising from Cariyon’s action in seizing from the commissioner’s office under a search warrant papers relating to a pending Court case. The Public Service Commissioner upheld the charge and ordered Carlyon’s transfer to New Zealand. In his judgment quashing this decision Dir Justice Reed said that reasonable opportunity to obtain legal advice, a distinct right given by the Public Service Act, 1912, liad been refused Carlyon. Sir Dlichael Myers, the Chief Justice, to-day said: “l cannot see that a person whose conduct is being enquired into under Section 11 of the Public Service Amendment Act, 1927, can he said to have had a full, free, fair and ample hearing when he has been denied, in connection with an inquiry, a right which Parliament lias expressly conferred on him. The provision in the Statute is a special one enacted by Parliament for the protection of the person affected and to ensure that he may have the assistance of counsel or an agent if he desires • If, then, he is prevented by the tribunal from exercising liis statutory right, it stuns there is a denial of that justice which Parliament itself has prescribed.” His Honour Dir Justice Ostler ami His Honour Dll' Justice Smith agreed that tho appeal should bo dismissed. His Honour Dir Justice Fair dissented, holding that it hud not been shown that tho tribunal had exceeded its jurisdiction; nor did it appear that the refusal of an adjournment was the real cause of respondent’s being deprived of his statutory right, or ol a full and fair hearing, or otherwise being, unjustly treated Costs on the lower scale were allowed Carlyon.