The Christchurch Star PUBLISHED BY New Zealand Newspapers Ltd. SATURDAY, APRIL 14, 1934. POLITICS AND LAW.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20280, 14 April 1934, Page 8

The Christchurch Star PUBLISHED BY New Zealand Newspapers Ltd. SATURDAY, APRIL 14, 1934. POLITICS AND LAW.

r | \HE POSSIBLY increasing in- -*• fluence of politics on members of the Bench and Bar was a danger that Mr Justice MacGregor mentioned in a farewell gathering at Wellington on Thursday. He said that a free and independent judiciary alone could preserve the people against aggression, whether in the shape of a bureaucracy or otherwise. Unfortunately, it is not at all certain that with the State attempting more and more to control the lives and destinies of society the judiciary can make very much of a stand against what has been called bureaucratic justice—that is, an administration created by Parliament to carry out its own Acts. Lord Hewart in 1929 declared that the whole system of self-Govern-ment was being undermined by the departmental despot, or the bureaucrat performing a judicial duty. The fundamental cause of this development of bureaucratic justice is political. It usually takes the form of a provision in an Act of Parliament that certain disputes shall be decided in a particular way without giving either of the disputants the option of resorting to a court of law. Lord Hewart said that there had been “a persistent influence at work, which undoubtedly has the effect of placing a large and increasing field of departmental authority and activity beyond the reach of ordinary law.” This tendency, however, has developed owing to the defects of courts of law, as a means of providing a quick decision with a minimum of expense. It is Socialistic in its tendency and Mr Bernard Shaw goes further, in respect to certain official interference in New Zealand, and calls it Communistic. For that reason there is already a reaction against it in New Zealand. In fact, the suppression of injustice against individuals, which is the highest if not the only legitimate purpose of government, must depend upon an enlightened public opinion. The Bar, however, with its clearer vision of the rights of individuals can also be “a great bulwark against injustice.” A DISCREDITED NAME. 'T'HE GOVERNOR-GENERAL might have given another reason for calling the Dominion Museum and National Art Gallery by the shorter name, “ Wakefield House,” and a reason which could be given for changing the names of most museums. Once the term museum conveyed the poetic idea of the temple of the Muses, but now—and this is particularly true in Christchurch—it is a synonym for a musty repository of curiosities, and even with a museum remodelled on the most up-to-date and attractive lines it would be difficult to abolish from the popular mind this association of ideas. But when the Canterbury Museum is restored in a manner adequate to its aims it would be an appropriate time to change its name to “ Canterbury House,” or some similar title which might commemorate a person or event in the history of the province worthy of memorialising. FENCES AND FENCES. 1 "'HE REMOVAL of the iron _ fence round the Queen Victoria statue gives a cue to a form of city beautifying on which there should be no argument. This statue, like that of Rolleston, has been surrounded by an iron fence as if it were a cemetery plot, but nobody seems to know why, because the Godley and the Moorhouse statues have never needed protection against vandalism, if that is the idea, and Victoria and Rolleston are not less respected than these pioneers. Instead of attempting the impracticable in respect to private dwellings, those who hate the sight of fences could make a start on public fences, such .as those that encircle the Normal School without serving any useful purpose. The structural degradation of public buildings and monuments is by no means a little matter in the cultural life of the community.