Truth LET THERE BE LIGHT.

NZ Truth, Issue 351, 16 March 1912, Page 4

Truth

LET THERE BE LIGHT.

PUPr.ISHKD" BVBBY SATURDAY MORNING A'E Luke's Lane (off Mannehssteeet), Wellington, N.Z.

TERMS TO SUBSCRIBERS.

SATURDAY, MARCH 16, 1912.

: 0 — • Chapman, J., and His Judicial ; ■ Methods, j

;. . • j , 1 No doubt, owing to the .belated intel- . i ligence caliled to Australia by liio > j Press Association, people m i\ic Cum.- ] k ! monwcallh ai^ apt to take a mi. L ia);-^i. 3 j view of matters In the Dominion. An: instance of whal. i.s mcain nv,\y '■<<*' given from the fact that Mortinn (jfi •.^-"^■3 Reported remarks mad'; by •■■V ■" a f?^#-S J&- Welliayjdpn a f^/W; 4 "* '■' - M '^^ < '- y ' f 'r

weeks ago, . not only have, been tuken | to imply that the Judge deplored the ■ awful increase of sexual crime m the j Dominion, but t/h'ati he blamed the sys- I tern of the suppression of the pablicar ,tion of evidence for .that terrible in-r crease. Thus we find more than one paper m Australia looking upon Mr Justice Chapman as an' outspoken advocate of letting m the fl'erce light of : publicity on the .doings of sexual miscreants. One paper m particular lias seized on Mr Justice Chapman's utterances to point out what is obvious, 'viz., that sexual crime m New Zealand ,is on the increase, and •goes on ] to say: ■ . ..,' • Mr" Justice Chapman, m Wellington, New Zealand, recently -'lamented the fact* that, owing to the verylittle that was published m the Dominion as to the miscreants who Criminally assault girls, the public had no conception of the extent of the evil, although he,- himself, had, he said, "m a few years, tried hundreds of cases." In New Zealand, there are so many well-intentioned — but wrong-headed — people who disapprove the publication of Ihc facts of such cases that the» people are kept m the ignb ranee that Mr Just; tice Chapman declared to exist. . It is just as well perhaps that there should be no misunderstanding on this point. • * • When, m the Wellington Hupremo Court a few weeks ago, Mr Justice J Chapman sentenced to . twenty years' imprisonment a brute m male human form for a vile and cruel offence on a young female • child, he (the judge) had, before the facts were placed before the jury, directed the press to refrain from publishing the evidence. This, we point out, is Mr> Justice Chapman's usual policy, and, #c can- | not .fail to remember that a couple of j years ago, the same judge, m the middle of a trial, where a man was charged with attempted murder, suddenly intervened and placed an embargo on the publication of certain evidence on the ground that such evidence, if re- j ported, would "corrupt" public morals, j However, m the particular -:ase with which we were idealing, Mr Justice Chapman found that he had before him a human monster, rightly convicted of an atrocious crime, where not one redeeming- feature intervened, and who j could not hope to escape the just vengeance of outraged society. Mr Justice Chapman sentenced that man to twenty years' imprisonment, and tried' to justify his severity the" while apologising for doing his duty, and endeavoring to reconcile t the fact that he was sentencing- a man to ths Jot,£est term the law : allows, to the still important fact that the public of New ! Zealand were debarred from knowing] the evidence upon which tho man was ! convicted. Mr Justice Chapman on !. that occasion revealed to Nnw Zea- . land what "Secrecy and Silence" meant. Having suppressed the facts, and be-, ing called upon to punish severely a iiend m human form, Mr Jus doe ! Chapman signally failed to convince ' the community that that community's j valetudinarian virtue was higher m j Importance than the. system of a Su- ! preme Court judge sending- a man to ! gaol for a life-time, for a crime the I nature of which,, to the average citi- j zen, must, forever, remain a mystery. ' Now, again last week, this time at Auckland, Mr Justice ("hapuian is found imposing severe i.entences on two female abortionists. He adopted the same system of suppression. On proved" facts, which i the public are not to know, two j women have been sentenced to'seven years' imprisonment. We know that m Auckland" for the past twelve months the police have been very busy m breaking up a gang of abortionists,, and, what is more, have succeeded. Auckland has been well ridded of the infamous gang, but it was left to Mr Justice Chapman, m strange contradistinction to the attitude always adopted by the usual Auckland judge, .Mr Jvistice Edwards, to prohibit the newspapers from giving the public some idea of what has hitherto existed. There is no particular need on' "Truth's" part to sermonise on morality, but it seems to be the idea, of Mr .'Justice Chapman that the immorality of one or two women, which led to the temptation to other women to commit crime, is such that if it were made public it would taint the whole community. It would :-eem to be Mr Justice Chapman's opinion that the best manner to stamp out immorality is to suppress the fact of its existence. a * « Mr J ustice Chapman, does not deplore the lack of publicity i-,i'/oii to the awful nature of crinie m Kew Zealand. If the lack ol publicity is m any way responsible for an -ncrease of sexual crime, zh>m Mr Justice Chapman himself, by order-! ing, on each and every occasion, ; the suppression of facts, has mater- ! ially contributed to. that increase. | Mr Justice Chapman ought to real- j ise what publicity to criminal pro- j ceedings means. We cannot fail to! recall that it was at Nelson some ! years ago that this judge sentenced ; to seven years' imprisonment the : two men, Halinen and Arulursen, who were held by a jury to be guilty of the manslaughter of the man Bourke, at Westport. Mr Jus-, tice Chapman was convinced of thjiri guilt, but, as another man confe^ssd j that Halinen and Andersen were m- ; nocent, the two men were released, ' i and tho' guilty man imprisoned, duo, ' j let it be borne m mind, to the pub- [ j licity given to the c-asa. It was no [ doubt borne home to the judge that | even judges are apt to err. Halinon ' and Andersen were certainly not ' |. tried by a secret process, and, {:er- ! j haps, it wns fortunate for thorn. ! j Whore secrecy is maintained, misi carriages of justice? will' not he disi covered. .Should, however, i( ever i ! coma about that innocent men ar^ ! ' sent to gaol by a court sitting m ' ! secrecy, we have no doubt that the .' public will rise and demand that ; justice m New Zealand he administered m the true British .sense. N:creey has lo.d to scandals a!r :• ad y. ■sVhO'-c iI- i;; leading; ' :i uojv ' it is; hn.possiblff to aay- \

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