THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1928. NOTES OF THE DAY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18642, 20 December 1928, Page 8

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1928. NOTES OF THE DAY.

SHORT SHRIFT was wisely given by members of the Riccarton Borough Council last evening to a proposal that the services of the borough traffic inspector should be retained by paying him a share of the fines collected. Such a system has, in practice, nothing to commend it. Tried elsewhere, it has proved thoroughly unsatisfactory to all the parties concerned—motorists, local body, and inspector himself. In one southern town, the inspector, up till a few weeks ago at least, was employed at a salary of £2 10s a week plus a proportion of the fines imposed on breakers of the by-laws. As a result, bitter complaints poured in from all quarters alleging glaring officiousness and partiality against the inspector. He, in turn, began to feel that he was being unfairly treated by various sections of the community and that he was losing the confidence of his employers. The outcome of the affair is still in doubt, hut enough has been experienced to serve as a lesson to other local bodies. It would be better for a district to go without an inspector altogether than to force him to depend for portion of his livelihood on the number of “ victims ” he secures in a week.

OiY PRESENT SIGNS, the Christmas season is not going to be marred by the spectacle of a war in South America, that continent of quarrel, revolution and bloodshed. The Governments of both Paraguay and Bolivia have, it is now announced, accepted Mr Kellogg’s offer of his good offices, on behalf of the Pan-Ameriqan Conciliation and Arbitration Conference, to mediate in the dispute arising out of the boundary of the Gran-Checo territory. The threat of hostilities on an extensive scale had aroused world-wide interest mainly because both countries are members of the League of Nations and it seemed certain that the League’s influence for peace was about to be put to the test. Trouble first arose over the construction by Bolivia of a fort on land apparently belonging to Paraguay. The incident developed, just as so many frontier incidents do, by a clash between outposts, an exchange of shots, and the sacrifice of life. It was at this stage that the League Council took a hand by reminding both countries that, as members of the League, they were pledged to seek a pacific settlement of their differences. Fortunately, the rival statesmen were disposed to take the hint. The machinery of the Pan-American Conference will now be set in motion and conciliatory procedure should nuickly end the dispute. AT LAST a magistrate has felt constrained to be critical over the conduct and policy of the Child Welfare Courts of the Dominion. Addressing several Justices of the Peace at Hawera yesterday, Mr J. S. Barton, S.M., said: “ Are you satisfied it is wise to prejudge that in ail cases, irrespective of the nature of the offence and the public interests involved, the Press should be excluded? That irrespective of the offence, the temperament of the offender and his attempts to inculpate others, his name must be suppressed, and that irrespective of the bearing of a youth of sixteen and a half years towards authority and the country’s ideals, he must be brought into a room shorn of all appearance or surroundings of a Court? Although it is gratifying to observe these signs of an awakening to the defects of the present system, Mr Barton would have been justified in making his remarks a little stronger. It cannot be disputed that the juvenile courts are surrounded by far too much secrecy, and that the effects of this secrecy are not helpful in checking crime. On the contrary, the withdrawal of the fear of public censure weakens the hands of the law. The “ Star ” has on several occasions taken this matter up and directed its comments against the absurd methods involved in the system. The Child Welfare Act, in some ways the most extraordinary' Act ever passed, has given rise to curious anomalies. There is no shadow of reason why one hardened offender who has attacked an adult and been tried in the ordinary courts should have his name published, while another hardened offender because he has committed an offence against a child and the case is heard in the juvenile court should have his name automatically suppressed. This is but one of the ridiculous provisions of the Child Welfare Act that should be amended without delay.