PUBLISHER FINED.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 192, 15 July 1939, Page 14

PUBLISHER FINED.

COMMENT BY BENCH. l’er Press Association. WELLINGTON, July 11. Neil Tonks, the publisher of Truth, was fined £lO and costs by reserved judgments delivered by Sir Michael Myers and Mr Justice Heed in the Supreme Court, to-dav, for contempt of Court on May 8. Sir Michael Myers said the Court must not only lie free, but must also appear to he free, from any extraneous influence. The appearance of freedom from any such influence was just as important as the reality. Public confidence must necessarily he shaken if there was the least ground for any suspicion of outside interference in the administration of justice. Any publication, therefore, that stated or implied that sentences imposed by Court were, or might be, affected by popular clamour, a newspaper suggestion, or any other outside influence was, in his opinion, calculated to prejudice the due administration of justice. Mr Justice Reed said it was contended that the Judge would not lie influenced by the publication in the measure of sentence be would impose and that, consequently, the course of justice could not he obstructed or interfered with. “I agree that the Judge would not consciously allow himself to he influenced by the comment, but its presence would be cxtrenitly disturbing to the Judge in the discharge of his duty, to cause which is in itself a contempt of Court,’’ said His Honour.