The Oamaru Seat.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6648, 12 September 1889, Page 4

The Oamaru Seat.

ADDRESS BY MR HISLOP. THE WARD-CHRISTIE CASE. [Fsb Fbxss Association.] OAMAfiU, Sept. 11. Mr Hialop, ex-Colonial Secretary and member for Oamaru, addressed a public meeting here to-night. There was a very large attendance, and the speaker received an attentive and, on the whole, a sympathetic hearing. His speech dealt almost entirely with the legal and constitutional principles evolved by, and involved in, the Ward-Christie case. He quoted from the late Dr Hearn, of Victoria, Mr Justice Richmond, and other authorities, to show that in the interests of its own integrity, and as a matter of constitutional usage, even the Supreme Court was amenable to criticism and answerable to Parliament; while District Court Judges, being in this Colony in the same category as Magistrates and Justices of the Peace, could at all times, on sufficient cause, be called to account by the Ministry of the day. From this he argued that all that had lately been done by the Government in regard to Judge Ward and the Christie case rested on sound Constitutional grounds. Mr Hislop also quoted authorities to show, and argued from the grounds of common sense, that the fact of Judge Ward's being in business relations with the Company that prosecuted in the Christie case, was sufficient to justify what he himself had done, and what the Government had done in the matter. In support of this view he quoted from an article which had appeared in the Melbourne Argus on August 27, from various private letters received by him from eminent barristers, some of them men with whom he had never Bpoken in his ; lifetime, and from the speech which Sir George Grey delivered in the House at the time of his (Mr Hielop's) resignation. The speech waa free from personalities, the only personal points consisting in references to the partisan constitution of the Legislative Council Committee in the j Ward-HMop enquiry, and to the suspicious { manner in which the Committee evaded i calling certain witnesses, more especially \ Mr Valentine, the member for Waikaia, as j his evidence in regard to the value of the ,' security held by the Colonial and Investment Company from Judge Ward would have been less favourable than that given by Messrs Lamach and Reynolds. Finally ■ Mr Hislop submitted that Parliament ! having failed in that respect, the quea- J tion which he had wished to emphasize by hia two-fold resignation, and the question now solely before his late constituency and the country, was whether it was right or in the public interest that j judges should preside in cases under cir- j cumstances in the least likely to lay thorn open to suspicion on account of consideration personal to themselves. TH« way of putting the matter apparently had the entire approval of the meeting. A vote of confidence in Mr Hialop was, after some interruption, declared by the Chairman to be carried unanimously.