SCANDAL OF SECRET TRIALS.

NZ Truth, Issue 606, 27 January 1917, Page 9

SCANDAL OF SECRET TRIALS.

Open Courts Called For. The secrecy that is -wrapped around the inquiries tfiat are held by race clubs is nothing more nor less than a scandal. The riiere fact of a man joining a racing club and being elevated to the position of steward, does not carry with the elevation an endorsement of judicial skill or knowledge. Yet we find that the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker, often setting m judgment and exercising judicial powers equal to a Supreme Court judge. Such appeal boards, determining fine points of racing law, appraising probabilities and possibilities, judging character, weighing evidence j and equitably apportioning- punish- | ment, call for special qualifications. If such boards possess these qualifications and / are solely intent on giving even-handed justice, there is no necessity lor them to move and have their being m the dark. If, on the other part, they are incompetent, or unfair, the wisdom of the keep-it-dark methods they adopt is plain. Common justice, however, demands that every man shall have a fair and impartial trial; that they get it under existing conditions does not appear humanly possible. Further, no special pleading on the t part of race clubs will ever convince the general public that evenhanded justice is handed out at all these star-chamber so-called appeals. Apart from the right of the individual to a proper trial, openly conducted, the public who maintain racing, are entitled. to a knowledge of what takes place m the race club's inquisition. It would further be thought that the stewards of such clubs would be only too anxious to show the public that neither fear nor favor dominated the decisions, of their appeal boards. The honest man put on trial would make no objection to it being shown why he had to run the gauntlet, while the crook being dealt with as he deserved dare not squeal. Dispensation of justice is based on publicity, and any departure from this salutary principle is j sinistorly suggestive of crookedness. | It is unhesitatingly affirmed that any hugger-mugger method of secret trial, when there is no necessity for it, is the ! hunting-ground o£ wrong-doing.