"HUSH-HUSH" TACTICS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 15319, 15 September 1920, Page 3

" HUSH-HUSH " TACTICS.

We are pleased to see (remarks the Wairarapa Daily Times) thafc His Honor Sir B. Edwards declined yesterday to hear a case at the Supreme Court with closed doors. His Honor rightly stated that the greatest deterrent against misconduct was the publicity which inevitably followed. It was nob a question of public morality, he said. ". • Should any person object to the "evidence, tho door was open, and there was no necessity for him to stay— none whatsoever. We have noticed for some time past that many lawyers m New Zealand have developed a habit of requesting judges to clear the court, when divorce cases are being, heard. Wo trust that the Bench of New Zealand will quickly cure these lawyers of ft very bad habit. So anxious are some lawyers and their clients to suppress publicity of "marriage misfits" that .. >thoy have the cases heard not m this.^lbw'n' or city m which the parties reside,' but m places hundreds of miles distant. We had an instance, of this the other day m a divorce case m which the parties resided m Wellington, but which they had brought before ;* the court at Christchurch — a fact which the presiding Judge referred to and condemned. Publicity m the press is undoubtedly a great deterrent to misconduct. The respectable- press of this country have always used j discretion and refrained from publishing details which would be appreciated only by those of low moral character. We desire to compliment Judge Edwards on the commonsense stand he has taken, 'and trust that his example will be- folldwed by every other Judge m the Dominion.