A WELCOME RELIEF.

Southland Times, Issue 17427, 20 August 1913, Page 4

A WELCOME RELIEF.

In connection with a divorce suit which la now being he&rd in Wellington, his Honour Mr Justice Chapman has shut the doors of the Court against the public and has forbidden the publication of the evidence or any part of it. One is disposed to comment: "For this relief much thanks.” We do not know anything about the details of the case, but It Is quite certain that the judge would not have taken such an extreme course without adequate cause. A heavy responsibility rests upon judges in this matter. Secret trials are entirely against the traditions and the spirit of British justice. The safety of the public lies in the fact that the Courts are open, that everything done in them is dona under public gaze, and that no attempt to obtain a Miscarriage of justice can pass undetected. In Great Britain, we believe, the judges have no power to do what Mr Justice Chapman has just done in New Zealand. A few years ago, after the newspapers had been flooded with the details of a divorce case in which people well-known in Society figured, there was a very strong agitation in favour of legislation prohibiting or restricting the publication of details in divorce cases at the discretion of the judges. If we remember rightly nothing was done because, while it was admitted that the publicity given to divorce court proceedings was not in the public interest and ministered only to tastes and appetites of the prurient and licentious, it was held that worse evils might follow if the hearing of such cases in camera were permitted, and that in the widest Interests of judges the open character of the courts must be protected. In New Zealand the judges have been invested with discretionary powers, wisely, as we think. Any abuse of the law would lead at once to the withdrawal of the right by Parliament, and its proper use will save the public from the recital of many a painful and sordid story.