SECRET DIVORCES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1536, 7 August 1901, Page 28

SECRET DIVORCES.

The following extract from the Napier “Telegraph” is, in view of a discussion in the Wellington Supreme Court on Friday, decidedly apropos : 'The time has gone by, perhaps, when it was per* tinent to say that the end of our efforts at representative’ government is to get twelve men into a jury-box The jury system is itself largely a menace to society now, and would be still more so if secrecy could be ensured for Court proceedings. But if justice is to b® done, the time for maintaining the necessity of full publicity for all legal processes before public functionaries will never go by. Those who affect to doubt this usually tak© their stand upon divorce oases. These, they say, ought not to be reported. If by that they mean that unseemly reproduction of details not affecting the main issue should not take place, we agree with them* That, however, is : a • matter which must b® left to the judgment of the press, for in every divorce case reputation is at stake, and to permit of divorce eases being heard in secret would be offering a .premium to sooundrelisnx. There is always in every such, case at least one person accused. Society is interested in seeing that he or she is treated fairly.. And while society pays Judges to sit in buildings which society builds, and administer laws which so* ciety makes, society—that is, the people as a wholes—has the right to knowall it wishes . tP know concerning its own institution’s. and now they are utilised. But. history tends to repeat itself and even at thi? stage ©f the, world’s progress, and.even in this pountry, there are people who, while willing to admit in the abstract’ that Star Chambers and Councils of Ten are bad, would be by.