LETTER TO JUDGE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 59, 12 March 1943, Page 3

LETTER TO JUDGE

“GROSS IGNORANCE” OF WRITER (P.A.) Auckland, March 11. “This case has brought me a novel exomenee which, 1 am glad to say, is unusual,” said Mr. Justice Callan in the Supreme Court to-day when he had given judgment on an appeal against a tobacconist’s conviction for using premises as a common gaming house. His Honour added that after he had reserved judgment at the conclusion of the hearing of the appeal he received a letter the plain purport of which was to influence him in the way he dealt with the case. He had not the slightest reason to suspect that appellant had anything to do with the letter, or that the writer had the least interest in appellant. He appeared to be interested in the existing state of the gaming law, which, His Honour gathered, he held in extreme contempt. His object -was to try and induce His Honour to share his viewt and that these should have some effect on the way the case was dealt with.

"What he did was wrong,” added Mr. Justice Callan. "In the first placcI have no right to try the gaming laws or any other laws when I am sitting here. This gentleman's invitation is really an invitation to disregard the official oath I took and every Judge takes also. It is very wrong to attempt to communicate with a judicial officer when a matter is pending before him with the object of influencing him. It is contempt of Court and punishable by fine and imprisonment. Believing, as I do, that this person acted from gross ignorance, I have not communicated with the authorities but have caused a letter to be written to him explaining how wrong his action was.”