THE PROBATION ACT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17662, 24 December 1920, Page 6

THE PROBATION ACT.

NON-PUBLICATION OF NAMES. [BY TEI©T;BA.PH. —OWN COBRESPOXDEXT. J CHRISTCHURCH. Thursday. On the subject of the suppression of th® names of first offenders when they appear before the Courts the Hon. W. H. Triggs, M.L.C., writes as follows to the Press : The section in the Offenders Probation Act providing that the Court may prohibit the publication of the name in the case of a first offender was introduced on the recommendation of the probation officers, who doubtless intended that it should apply only in cases of first offenders admitted to probation. Were it actually confined to such cases I think it ought, to meet with general approval The object of the Act is to give offenders everv opportumty to retrieve a first false step and the puhLcation of the lapse in the newspapers will obviously make the S j m Sgle r re 2 am a 80,111(1 footing more difficult. It is the same humane principle which leads the newspapers to refrain from publishing the names of those brouzht before the Juvenile Court and personally I agree with it. Whether the same consideration should be extended to first offenders who are convicted and not admitted to probation is certainly open to argument. There is no question, however, that the Legislature intended to leave the matter to the discretion of the ' Court. In the House of Representatives • the Minister for Justice stated distinctly in' reply to a question, that the clause applied to all first offenders, and three or four members expressed their approval of this statement. In the Legislative Council, members with experience in journalism pointed to the danger of giving such wide powers of suppression to the Courts, but the general impression seemed to be that in view of the high character of our magistrates and judges they might be safely trusted to exercise such powers with discretion and with a due sense of the heavy responsibility attached to any interference with the liberty of the press."