NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1152, 13 June 1911, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

The member for the Suburbs seat is so amiable a politician that one is always inclined to extend a kindly toleration to even the most depressing of those wishy-washy sentimentalities in which he at times indulges. At his meeting last evening he made reference to the five million loan transaction of last year, and raised his voice to swell the chorus of Government clacquers who would stifle criticism on the pretext that it is "calculated to damage the credit of the country." We do not suppose Mn. Luke would claim to bo a very profound thinker, but he possesses a certain amount of common sense. And that should tell him that if the loan transactions of the Government will not bear criticism at this end they certainly must arouse deep suspicion in the minds of financiers in London, on whom we rely for our loans. It may not have occurred to Jin. Luke that if the criticisms passed here arc not sound and based 011 solid fact, they arc not likely to carry any weight in the financial world at Home, the members of which are in quite the best position possible to estimate their value. But if they are sound, what then? Would Mr. Luke suppress criticism which exposes reckless or unwise methods of fin a 11 cc, and so deceive the country as to what is going on'? Is he one of those who would shut his eyes to financial maladministration, and so permit it to be continued, in order to avoid doing some imaginaryinjury to the country's credit? Few

things are more contemptible in our politics than the use of this bogus cry, designed to stiile criticism under the pretext of saving the conntry's credit. If the country's credit were dependent 011 the suppression of the truth, then it would bo in a very bad way indeed. As a matter of fact, New Zealand's resources arc such that even the wretched administration of our plunging Ministry cannot for the present seriously affect it. But that credit can be strengthened by sound and careful administration brought about by straightforward and honest criticism. Mr. Luke in his amiable way means well, no doubt, but unless wc arc much mistaken the country is a little tired of this class of member. It wants members who will face facts fearlessly; who will expose political wrong-doing boldly whoevA 1 may suffer thereby; and who above all things will insist on the people's affairs being managed in the people's interest and not for the benefit of a clique of politicians and their hangers-on.

At an important public dinner in London on May 3 last, attended by the Master of the Rolls, the Solici-tor-General, three Lord Justices, four other Judges, and several of the leading lawyers of England, some statements were made which must have been read with much interest by Dk. Findlay and Slit Joseph Ward. The principal speech was that of the Master of the llolls, the Kiget Hox. Sir Herbert H. Cozexs-Hardy, who, since he is the superior, in the Supreme Court of Judicature, of all the Lord " Justices, is a very high authority indeed. Apart from his position, he 'is perhaps the ablest of British Judges. His theme was that upon which the Lord Chief Justice made a very important statement a couple of years ago—namely, the encroachment of the Government upon the Courts' functions. Like Lord Alverstone, lie referred to the disappearance of the old danger, against which the Judges had to guard the nation, of the encroachment of the Crown, and proceeded:

Happily there was 110 longer that danger; but there was another danger which was much more real than that —namely, encroachment by the Executive. Ho had seen signs of attempts by the Executive to interfere with the judiciary, and against all such attempts lie thought he could pledge his colleagues and himself to offer a strenuous resistance. There was another danger connected with the Executive. In recent year; it had been the habit of Parliament to delegate very great powers to Government Departments. The real legislation was not to be found in the Statute-Book alone. The.v found certain rules and orders by some Government Departments under the authority of the Statute itself. He was one of thoso who regarded that as a very bad system and one attended by very great danger. It is easy to imagine the opinion that this eminent Judge would express upon the New Zealand Government's subsidising of the Chief Justice. Both the evils mentioned in the passage quoted—and especially the second, the delegation of absolute and uncontrolled legislative powers to the Ministry—exist in New Zealand in a degree that would not be believed by Englishmen.

Although it is an act upon which we would prefer not to comment, wc feel that Ministers should be supported in their decision not to commute the deatlv sentence passed upon the young Maori who brutally murdered a fellow gum-digger in the North the other day. Most people, .we think it may safcly.be said, expected that a reprieve would be granted,'relying upen the precedent of mercy established in the case of tho man Roderts, who shot a girl dead in a fit of jealousy in Christchurch, and the man Swan, who murdered his wife in Invereargill in circumstances of extreme brutality. In both these eases no sound reason for commutation was advanced, even if the sentencing Judges approved of it. It is satisfactory to know that the Government has not administratively abolished the, death sentence. Wc feci entire confidence in the wisdom ancl justice of the Executive's decision, but they owe it to themselves, not less than to the public, .to make up their minds very clearly upon the general question of capital punishment. Their latest decision may seem questionable to many of those who remember tho Roberts andSSwatn t cases—a fact that emphasises _ the importance of a very stiict attitude in dealing with the almost invariable "recommendation to mercy."