The Dominion. SATURDAY, AUGUST 19, 1911. "I WAS TOLD," AND "I UNDERSTAND."

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1210, 19 August 1911, Page 4

The Dominion. SATURDAY, AUGUST 19, 1911. "I WAS TOLD," AND "I UNDERSTAND."

We dealt yesterday with certain aspects of the report of the Chief Justice on the Cook Islands Administration. We showed very plainly that Sir Robert Stout was not accurate in his presentation of certain of tho facts, and proved this by documentary evidence iu our possession. We showed, also, that publication of the text of a damaging portion of the correspondence relating to the Hospital charges had been suppressed, while other letters on the same subject had been published in full. We showed, further, that Sir Robert Stout, in order to place at a disadvantage the persons making tlie charges against the Administration, had gone out of his way to put an unreasonable and unfair interpretation on their very proper and reasonable request for a public inquiry with the witnesses examined on oath. We advanced sufficient evidence to show that the Chief Justice, instead of presenting a report based on an open and impartial investigation of the whole of the facts, was content to present definite findings on ex ■parte statements made to him in secret. All these matters, we argued, went to prove not only the worthlessness of tho report; but, what is of far greater importance, that the action of Sir Robert Stout in undertaking these secret investigations on behaU' of the Government, and in showing his willingness to arrive at definite conclusions on questions of public concern on c>s parle evidence obtained in the manner stated, was striking a damaging blow at the dignity and prestige of the Supreme Court Bench.

It is our purpose qn the present occasion to give some further notice to the report, and more particularly to the frame of mind in which the Chief Justice, judged by the conclusions he has arrived at and his reasons therefor, would seem to have approached the task allotted him by Ministers. We remarked before on his manifest attempts to belittle the charges made and the manner in vvhich lie lias strained facts to the prejudice of those who ventured to make the charges against the Administration. There is a certain strain of pettiness running through tho report very regrettable to notice in a finding emanating from tho Chief Justice of the Dominion. Little parenthetical comments are introduced here and there which have no greater justification than "I understand" or "I was told," and "one settler said," and so on; and these comments or asides arc invariably prejudicial to the complainants. It must strike anyone with even an elementary sense of fairness that it is monstrously unjust that _ the Chief Justice should reficat in his report these

scraps of individual opinion reflecting on the complainants, which he states he picked up during his secret inquiries, without publishing the names of the persons making the statements. For instance, in respect of the very serious charges made by Dr. p.uvsON in connection with the Hospital, ho concludes his remarks by saying: "I may add that one settler said that all the trouble—l think he said fuss—that had arisen in the Islands would cease at once if Dr. Dawson were reappointed to "some medical appointment in connection with the Cook Islands." The Chief Justice of the country thus makes use 6f sonic anonymous person to discredit and cast a most serious reflection on one of the most respected residents of the Islands, who he knows, or should know,, had voluntarily relinquished the highest medical office obtainable at the Islands. Dr. Rangihiroa, M.P., and a supporter of the Government, who acted as locum tciicns at the Islands for a short time, speaking in Parliament last session, said:

It is unfortunate, that disagreement should have occurred between the medical officer and the Administrator, because I recognise that in Dr. Dawson there was a medical officer who possesses unique qualifications for the position. He was a man who took a unique interest in the Maori race, and 1 am sorry I cannot say that is always the case with members of my profession. He had their interests at heart, and I know lie went to the Islands not so much for the salary he would derive from the position as from his interest in the study of tropical diseases; ... I know that, coming after a man of Dr. Daivson's unique qualifications, any man, no matter how capable he might be, would fiud his position a difficult one. • ■ .

The Dr. Dawson here mentioned is the gentleman. referred to by the anonymous slanderer whose unsupported statement the Cliief Justice thinks it a fair and just thing to include in his report as part of the case to bolster up the Administration at the expense of the residents who openly entered the charges against it. To make the position still worse the Chief Justice in his report urges that tlic notes of evidence which he obtained should not be published because they contain reflections, "and it would be unfair to publish them when the persons referred to have not had an opportunity of rebutting the criticisms." The reflection against De. Dawson is published , and made use of to his detriment, but even the name of the person alleged to be responsible for making it is suppressed. A respected resident is held up to contempt by a Judge of the Supreme Court on the word of an anonymous slanderer, And this is the sort of justice we can expect from secret investigations conducted by the Chief Justice of the Dominion. We shall deal with other features of this extraordinary report in future issues. It is an amazing production, and affords the most disquieting evidened of the danger which threatens the whole, community when politics are permitted to encroach, on the .domain of our Courts of Justice-