EXTRA PAYMENT TO JUDGES.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1287, 16 November 1911, Page 6

EXTRA PAYMENT TO JUDGES.

"A CHARACTERISTIC FINDLAYLSM." Daring his address last evening, Mr. Herdman dealt with a statement by Sir John Findlay on tlio subject of extra payments to Judge?. He remarked that when Sir John Findlay was asked whether he approved of tbeso payments, ho answered Hint no doubt the question was aimed at Kir Ilobert Stout, and stated Unit ho was exceedingly ashamed of the manner in which .some men advanced allegations of judicial corruption. These charges, he said, were base and ignoble. "One has to go about this matter in a. very careful way," said Mr. Herdman. "if you riake anr observations about the .Supremo Court Judges, you are liable to be misrepresented." The remarks of the Attorney-General, be continued, might bo described as "a characteristic Findlayistn." So far as be (Mr. Herdnian) remembered, no attack was ever made in the House upon the Chief Justice. The question put to Kir John Findlay was simply, did ho favour extra payment to Judges? "Can you see in that any indication of an attack upon a Judge?" asked >h\ Herdman. His auditors replied with, a chorus of "lines," and they made the same reply to a question as to whether they thought the Attorney-General had acted fairly in the matter. "It was no doubt a smart thing to do," said Mr. Herdman, "but it was not playing the game." (Applause.) What had been said in the House, ho went on, was that it was a wrong thing to make extra payments to Judges, and it was wrong. (Hear, hear!) "If you get Supremo Court Judges into the habit of looking to Ministers for perquisites," ho added, "tho purity of justico might lie affected. In any ease, the thing is absolutely wrong in principle." (Applause.) Before leaving the subject, Mr. Herdman remarked that no doubt it was tlio Attorney-General who was the Minister responsible for giving extra work and payment to the Chief Justice, and so aroused the present controversy.