THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1893.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9327, 10 October 1893, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1893.

It is nofr very often that we have the spectacle offered of a judge on the bench of the Supreme Court denouncing the administration of Ministers. Such a thing does occur occasionally, and the public are always inclined to be thankful for it. The constitution of the colony* endeavours to make the judges of the Supreme Court independent of the Executive, but it is difficult to accomplish this completely. Questions as to leave of absence and other arrangements occasionally arise, and so the judges invariably find it to be to their interest to be on good terms.with the Executive. Mr. Justice Conolly has had the courage to express his opinion on the action of the Public Trustee in regard to a lease of native land on the West Coast. The Public Trustee is, by the Act under which he works, "made practically owner of native land," and when he obtained the plenary powers accorded him in the session before last, he felt, as Mr. Justice Conolly says, like a young heir, and was determined to clear all before him. He found the defendant in the present case in possession of a piece of land under a lease direct from a native owner. He had erected buildings relying on his position, and he had regularly paid his rent. But the Public Trustee is determined that he shall g<t, and he actually claims damages for illegal occupation, although the rent had been paid up. Mr. Justice Conolly says :— " Defendant was the sort of man who ought to be encouraged—an honest, hard-working, pioneer settler, but the Public Trustee does not attempt to come to any terms, and turns him off the land. Mo ordinary man would have done such a thing, and the Public Trustee was not compelled to act in such a peculiar and arbitrary manner." His Honor means that the Public Trustee was not compelled by the Act, but neither he no.- anyone else doubts that he was compelled by orders from Wellington. So strongly does the judge feel the wrong of the case that he refuses to allow any costs. This is not the first time that Mr. Justice Conolly has felt compelled to protest against the actions of the Ministry in Taranaki. Some months ago he spoke strongly on the Government method of espionage in regard to the Land Act, and said that they wanted to take advantage of a mistake made by one of their own officers to harass and injure a settler. The consequence was, that the wrath of Mr. John McKenzie, the Minister of Lands, was aroused, He retorted forcibly on the Judge, and looked more sharply than ever after the Taranaki men. It was believed that the recent cases before the Land Board here, in regard to the Awakino Block, could have been easily arranged if the members of the Board had been tha only ones to be consulted. But it was surmised, from the action taken, that rigorous orders had come from Wellington. It is a very serious thing indeed for a high officer like a Judge of the Supreme Court to proclaim from the Bench that the Government of the day is compelling him to do a substantial injustice to "an honest, hard-working, pioneer settler," Such a thing should never be permitted to occur. There is a maxim in England that " the honour of the Crown must be preferred to its profit." It is a sad thing that a Judge of the Supreme Court should solemnly aver that an officer in the position of the Public Trustee is oppressing a settler, at the instance, not of the native owners of the land, but of the Ministry of the day. The Government have lately , also been spoken to very straightly by the Auditor-General, an officer whose position is also surrounded by peculiar guarantees, and who moreover is soon about to retire. It is impossible to go into all the details of this business, but we may quote the words of Mr. Fitzgerald in his last letter to Mr. McKenzie. He said :— " Nothing can alter the fact that one of the officers of my department was not ashamed to take advantage of his introduction to the Minister to convey to him information of a character disparaging to myself and to his own colleagues in the Audit Office, and that the Minister was not ashamed to make use of such information in a public communication to your committee, whilst he concealed from me the fact that he had stooped to listen to it. As the period of i my long connection with the public service of the colony will shortly terminate, I can only add that the regret I should naturally feel at leaving office will be somewhat ; mitigated by the sense of never being again exposed to insult, as the reward of long service." No one who knows Mr. Fitzgerald's distinguished career in New: Zealand, and the high reputation he has for personal honour and integrity, will think lightly of any censure from him. Ministers must see that such references as those made by 1 Mr. Justice Conolly and Mr, Fitzgerald

■will seriously damage them in the estimation of all who think that the rulers of a country should be honourable in all their official acts.