MINISTER'S CONSENT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24913, 12 May 1942, Page 2

MINISTER'S CONSENT

CASES FOR PROSECUTION CHIEF JUSTICE’S COMMENT (Special) WELLINGTON, May 11. Comment on the degree of significance attaching to the fact that the Attorney-general had consented to the initiation of a prosecution and reference to the fact that opinions differed on the question whether prosecutions should be brought were made during the addresses in the trial in the Supreme Court, Wellihgton, of John Michael Davis, shop assistant, aged 25, for subversion. Opening the case for the Crown, Mr C. H. Weston, K.C., pointed out that the Attorney-general nad directed the prosecution, but Mr W. J. Sim, K.C., who appeared for Davis, told the jury that the Attorney-general’s consent was necessary under the regulations, and no doubt had been given only after careful, and possibly anxious, consideration. It did not follow, however, that there were not cases which were on the border line, and such a case might well have been sent forward in reliance on the fact that the jury would comb carefully all the details of the case and form an independent judgment. Reference to the subject was made by the Chief Justice (Sir Michael Myers), who said in his summing up that importance should not be attached to the Attorney-general’s consent having been given. A prosecution of that kind could not have started without the Attorney-general’s consent, and the Attorney-general was not necessarily always right. Sometimes he might direct a prosecution where other people might think there should not be a prosecution, and similarly he might refuse to direct that proceedings be taken where other people might think such proceedings ought to be taken