The Daily News TUESDAY, DECEMBER 26. THE LAW LORDS OF LONDON.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8012, 26 December 1905, Page 2

The Daily News TUESDAY, DECEMBER 26. THE LAW LORDS OF LONDON.

The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council is so hoary and respectable a body chat it savors of blasphemy for a mere colonial paper to suggest that it might be mended by being ended. The " London Times," which, by the way, can baldly be regarded as iconoclastic or progressive, aid the thunderous opinions of which are generally regarded as the Englishman's true opinions, recently callc d for its reform on the very excellent grounds that colonial judges, whose opinions were often set aside on appeal to the Law Lords, were trained as elliciently as the judges in the Homeland, We have had numerous samples of these peculiar and humiliating reversals of the decisions of New Zealand's Chief Judge and puisne judges, and the Chief Justice has several times risen in! his wrath and smitten the Law Lords hip and thigh, not only because the dear old gentlemen reversed his decisions, or the decisions of his juniors, but' because when New Zealand has sent cases Home the tired old gentlemen have pigeonholed them for a couple of years or so.

It isn't that New Zealand is too clever to be taught anything that one objects to the law Lords dictating to our judges, but it is because it is absolutely impossible for a few weary veterans, who do their work in a dilettante fashion, to know the first thing about colonial conditions. Tho Law Lords have reversed decisions in cases sent from Now Zealand quite against the will of the judges wiio understood the law and the people's will, which is supposed to be " sovereign "in this colony. To suggest that a man with a coronet in his cupboard and a full-bottomed wig on his head is biassed would be rude, but to remark that t/ie atmosphere of England, find the environment of " caste," aren't likely to give the LawLords a clear idea ot democratic laws, institutions and people, is at least permissible. Our own judges are gathered from the best legal material we have; they have lived in New Zealand all their working lives, and have helped to make the laws they administer. They are admitted to be " Sans peur et sans reproche." When, therefore, dissatisfied litigants, having brought a case before the Supreme Courts of New Zealand without success, are able at great expense to get men ignorant of the matter to reverse the decision of those who are skilled, the protest of our judges and the New Zealand press should be added to the protest of the " London Times," whose attitude frequently surprises us. If wo are not able to administer the laws we make to meet the conditions that exist here, then wo shouldn't lie trusted with self-government. Our professional men win high honors wherever they go, and show themselves to be the equals of the Homeborn man. Still our judges and tlio judges of all the great self-governing colonies are made schoolboys of by the grey Lords of the Privy Council. Some day, perhaps, wo may be permitted to go into long trousers.

A CAMPAIGN OF CALUMNY. The colonics havo little to thank the press of England for. The latest tiling to get ou tho nerves of Australia is tho allegation contained in the "London Daily Mail," asserting that owing to unwise legislation there is a great exodus of people from Australia. Agents-Genei-.il in London have their work cut out, and their time occupied, 111 replying to detrimental articles and reports about the colonies. Australia's first and best asset is population, and what is true of Australia is equally true of New Zealand. Neither Aus tralia nor New Zealand has enough people, and, as the natural increase is woefully slow, wo are dependent largely 011 suppliss of people from liritain. Just because the English papers don't do us sullicient damage, though they try, we have a lugubrious section of people 011 tho spot who are ready to keep tho campaign of calumny in full working ordor. The jiremiads of Jellicoe, a New Zealand barrister, are fresh in the memories of New Zealanders.

* » * * It' the British people aceopt and believe some of these opinions from tho Home papers, that know less than nothing about the colonies, how much more likely are intending settlers to be influenced by tho coloniaibrod cavillers who affect to know everything? There has been 110 appreciable exodus of people from Australia, despite the alleged driving out of capital by labour and other legislation, but the small defections have been magnified by bilious persons at Home into a broad river of departing humanity. While it is not fair to paint in too glowing tints the advantages of this end of the earth, it is absolutely criminal for influential people or papers to stop tho How of much-needed population by attempts to decry all colonial institutions by laws which, 011 tho whole, are aimed at the suppression of the boodlor and the emancipation of those who are at least able to help themselves.

Xo attunpts are made by (lie British press to impress the British public with the iiwi'uliKs; of Canadian or United States' conditions. J'oth of these countries have .such huge additions to their population weekly that the press could not materia!ly■ ad'er.-t it. Doth countries are so near th« great centres of population. Australia and New Zealand, however, are very distant. It is a large undertaking for a man to journey hither, and when at the outset lie is eonfronted with articles at every turn predicting ruin if he venture—he doesn't ventiu-e. Tremendous journalistic capital has been made out of the alleged hardships of the cout. act Ml 01 ' the colonics)lho^.

hatters " and " six potters " incidents are fresh in the minds of readers. Neither the one party of artisans nor the other were prohibited from working in Australia, and no harshness against people of our own blood has been really proved against New Zealand. What hay been termed the policy of " stinking iish " is one of the biggest handicaps that the colonies have to contend with. Who shall tell the truth about us ?