THE JUDICIAL CHANGES.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 91, 23 January 1875, Page 6

THE JUDICIAL CHANGES.

THEresignationof Sir George Abney, and the contemplated changes as to the occupants of the Supreme Court Bench, have given rise to not a few canards, by which not only the public, but many members of the Fourth Estate have been led astray. This is to be regretted for more reasons than one. The general public are so apt to place such implicit credence in the utterance of the Press, that it is a duty incumbent upon all journalists to guard against giving currency to reckless and unfounded statements. The power wielded by the Press is immense; and its utterances have great weight. It is true that the acts of pullic men become public property, and that, consequently, journalistic comment upon their conduct becomes perfectly justifiable • on the other hand, however, it is but fair that when public men are criticized, the strictures should not be prompted by private pique or animus ; that they should be influenced by a desire for the public welfare ; and, above all, that the allegations put forth should be founded on fact. That this is not always the case is unfortunately too true. The Wanganui Herald '—a journal usually conspicuous for the very impartial views advocated in its columns—by its hastiness in accepting and acting on one of those flying reports, without being properly assured of its authenticity, has been led into doing a manifest injustice to one of the judges of the Supreme Court. It may be remembered that some short time since a statement was afloat to the effect that his Honor Mr Justice Chapman had decided upon retiring fupon his well-earned pension, but that he distinctly stipulated before taking such a step that the vacant seat should not be given to Judge "Ward. The absurdity of such a proposition should have been the only contradiction needed ; but notwithstanding that, and the tact that the entire truth of the story was denied, our contemporary seems to have swallowed the canard as gospel and allowed itself to indulge in a Philippic in which both the Government and the Judge are severely lampooned, lhe conduct of Mr Justice Chapman is characterised as a piece of effrontery never equalled by a judge of the Supreme Court, and the reasons attributed for the supposed stipulation, not the desire to see his place filled by a worthy successor, or from any high spirited public motives, but to the gratification of a petty private spite. That such language should have been indulged in upon the mere publication of a telegraphic item is to be regretted, and the manifest injustice of such strictures upon such insufficient data is made apparent in this particular case where blame is unjustly thrown upon a high official, which is calculated to detract from the respect to which he is entitled Indeed Mr Justice Chapman would appear to have been tne victim of some very unfair and uncalled for animadversions and we also hold that sufficient reparation has not been made to him for the indignity to which he was subjected by by the groundless charges made against him by Judo-e WAKD. Our contemporary in the same article is further duped by the announcement of the appointment of Mr Geobge Higetbotham, of Victoria, to one of the vacant judgeships, and in the plentitude of its gullability, and the excess of its virtuous indignation, soundly berates the powers that be." We trust that by this 4ne it has dis. covered that its eloquence and denunciation were expended in vain, and that it may learn for the future not to waste its powder in peppering away without an enemy being in