THE COLONIST. Published Every Morning. Friday, March 17, 1911. A DANGEROUS PRECEDENT.

Colonist, Volume LIII, Issue 13057, 17 March 1911, Page 2

THE COLONIST. Published Every Morning. Friday, March 17, 1911. A DANGEROUS PRECEDENT.

The incident which occurred »t the Wellington Supreme Court yesterday and related, as far as the- facts are known, in a Press Association telegram appearing in another column of this issue, seems to call for further explanation than has yet been vouchsafed. Apparently a case over whiph puhlic interest has been strongly aroused is being heard, and determined behind closed doors. With that w# have no fault to find; there is, no doubt, an excellent reason for preventing the publication of the details. But on this occasion not only is the publication of the evidence forbidden, but the prohibition is made to include the nameg °f the parties to the suit, andi the newspaper reporters were even excluded from the Court during the whole of the proceedings.. "The Registrar told waiting pressmen that they would n°t be allowed to be present, and said the- Court ha 4 made an <irder to that effect, anc| tha^ theChief Justice wished them to withr draw." Subsequently "the Registrar said that the publication of the names In the case was also forbidden," Criticism of the judicial bench i« at all times a matter to be approached with great caution, and the more so when the Bench enjoys the confidence' of the people in the great degree in which the Judges of the Supreme Court have always possessed it. At the same time such an order as that made by the Chief Justice is co opposed to the British conception that the administration of justice should not be removed from the purifying influence of publicity, and so much, at variance with the practice of the Court, that some explanation is called for. It is argued—and w© in no way desire to depreciate the weight of the argument —that in the interest of public morals certain oases only too common in our Courts should not b« publicly heard, so that unpleasant details may be retailed and feasted upon by the morbidly minded. la SOmmon

with, we believe,'the whole of the press of New Zealand wo are heartily in sympathy with that idea. The publication of evidence in such cases nifty perhaps do a little good, as a warning to the unsophisticated, but unquectionably it is responsible for infinitely more mischief. The Court, however, always has the power, of which it makes a wise use, of excluding the public during the hearing of objectionable cases, and of prohibiting the publication of the evidence. But the entire exclusion of the press representatives, coupled with a judicial edict against the publication even of the names of the persons concerned, is a very different matter and one that is bound to occasion comment for which it is far from desirable that the practice of the Courts of the Dominion should lend any colour of justification We have no doubt that the order of the Chief Justice in the Wellington case was* prompted by the high motives which invariably actuate our judiciary, but the establishment of such precedents calls for the exercise of the utmost discretion, lest in attempting to remedy a great evil the seeds of a much greater evil be planted.