MR. MASSEY ROUSED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14835, 11 November 1911, Page 8

MR. MASSEY ROUSED.

" PROVE YOUR STATEMENTS." SIR J. FINDLAY CHALLENGED. PAYMENTS TO JUDGES. IB* telegraph.—OWN REPORTER.]

Patakira, Friday. A further stage in tho controversy regarding the propriety of the special payment of judges of the Supreme Court for services outside their ordinary responsibilities was reached this evening, when tho Leader of the Opposition (Mr. W. F. Massev), speaking at Papakura, mado a vigorous reply to the remarks made by Sir John Findlay at Parnell last evening. M'"- Maseey said there were always two sides to a question, and ono aspect of this question had been submitted by Sir John Findlay. Apparently the anger of Sir John Findlay had been roused by the reply made by Mr. Massey at Patuinahoe, when he reiterated his opinion that the payment's were improper. Quoting from a report of the Attorney-General's remarks, Mr. Massey declared that ho had 110 intention of submitting to a scolding from any politician, not excepting a benighted member of a benighted Ministry. (Applause.) Mr. Massey gave an unqualified denial to statements made by Sir John Findlay that the Chief Justice had been practically told by the Leader of the Opposition that the answer Sir Robert Stout gave to the Government in connection with tho Hino charges was influenced by tho fact that, ho had been paid for his services in connection with the Native Land Commission, and that tho Hine charges were hurled at Sir Robert Stout a fewdays before the Chief Justice was to try the libel action instituted against the New Zealand Times by the Leader of the Opposition. " Now, I desire to make an offer to Sir J. Findlay," continued Mr. Massey. "He has plainly stated that I have done something wrong and improper. Everything I have said on the subject has been recorded in the public press, and in Hansard, and I challenge him to collect those records, make them public, and allow tho people to decide whether I have done anything wrong. (Applause.) lam going to have this tiling thrashed out, and I expect to see these statements published during the next few days, before I return to Auckland. If they are not, I shall take an opportunity from a Parnell platform to ex- | press, in the plainest possible terms, my opinion of Sir J. Findlay, and of his action in this matter." Mr. Massey then quoted from Sir John Findlay's speech, in which the latter said that the critics of the Government were posturing on a pedestal, and had better look to their own practices. "This evidently referred to me," said Mr. Massey. I challenge Sir J. Findlay to show one occasion on which I have put personal interest before the public interest of the country. There is a covered innuendo iif the statement that is unworthv of a Minister of the Crown, and if he knows anything against me, publicly or privately, I challenge him to make it'public, and I shall allow the people of Franklin to be the judges. (Applause.) I further promise that there will be no action for slander or libel, on anything he says." Explaining the various aspects of the subject, Mr. Massey said that his libel action came first before Judge Chapman, and not before Sir Robert Stout as was suggested by Sir J. Findlay. In this connection lie mentioned that' whatever the judgment he was prepared to accept as final the decision of the Privy Council on the action. The question of*special payments to judges in New Zealand had been discussed by the Australasian, in a leading article, in which the journal declared that it is indisputable that a judge ought to have quitted the bench before he was eligible to receive money rewards of that magnitude from the Government. It was an underlying principle of the British Court that no judge of the Supremo Court should be placed in a position in which he could be either rewarded or punished by Government, and the members of the Opposition would have failed in their duty if they had not drawn the attention of the public to the impropriety of these payments. "Every time and for all time"" declared Mr. Massey, " I shall stand for an open Court and an independent Bench " (Loud applause.)