NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1346, 25 January 1912, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY

Whenever any encroachment is made upon the rule that a British Court of justice, with certain welldefined exceptions, sits in public there are sure to be protests. In London the other day' a divorce.ease was heard in camera in order to prevent the publication of a certain class of detailed evidence. It afterwards transpired that type-written copies of the shorthand writer's transcript of the evidence had been furnished to some of the relatives and friends of the parties. Thereupon a motion was made to commit the petitioner and her solicitor for contempt of Court. Mrc. Justice Baegrave Deane agreed with the motion, but did not exact anything further than costs and apologies. His ruling was that the parties had no right to communicate anything more than the result of the trial, and that no further information, might be given even to the nearest relatives. The Law Times v/as of opinion that this ruling was open to serious doubt, and would be received with a. considerable amount of- astonishment. "At the present time," the Law Times added, "an agitation exists for the hearing of all divorce cases with closed doors, but if ,i strong argument were ' wanted against such an exception to the rule that an English Court of justice is always conducted with open doors, the recent pronouncement of Mh! Justice Bargkave Deane supplies it. We do not. suppose mnny of the readers of The Dominion*need reminding of the extreme importance, of publicity as a constant element in the administration of justice. It is generally agreed, as'the Law Times says, that to prevent the general publication of details in cases like that under nolice, or when* a hearing in public would defeat the ends.of justice, trials in camrra are necessary; but we in New Zealand have seen that the power of a judge to insist on privacy may he exercised, oven iu proceedings' connected with divorce, in such a way as to disturb the confidence of the public in our courts of law. It must never be forgotten that to shut out tho. public from all knowledge, of a court case is to dispense with one, of Ilic securities for justice; even when decency seems to require it, (his should only be done with hesitancy and caution. Sometimes, indeed, it happens that in cases of this kind Home measure of publication—which may almost always bo kept within the. hounds of propriety—is the only way of avoiding unmerited > injury to the reputations of persons 'em! cerned.

We have often been told in twins of exultation that New Zealand is iin example to ether countries. But there is more than one, way of being an example. A_ correspondent wrote to the Westminster Gazette last month: At tin's moment Ttew Zealand is Tiavlng practical experience of what some people in this country still believe to be a desirable electoral reform—l mean the second ballot in single-member constituencies. Tim report of the correspondent of the "Times as to the working of this system should not pass unobserved by Liberals and Labour men. What he say's is (the "Times," December 9): "The second ballot campaign is creating extraordinary excitement, confusion, and uncertainty. Bath big parties angle for the support of Labour, and conversely the Labour party and the Independents angle for Government or Opposition support, as occasion demands." In other words, the second ballot is working in New Zealand just as it works in France, where it lias been condemned by men of views so different ;is M. .Inures, 11. Desclmnel, and M. Yves Guyot, and, finally, by the Commission tin .Suffrage Universel of the French Clumber, on account of the "traffic in votes" which it causes. It was the utter discredit into which the second ballot system fell in Belgium that was one of the most powerful reasons for the introduction of proportional representation. It is perhaps consoling to think that our second ballot incubus may be a warning to England.

The London Times of December 15 contains a large reproduction of the architect's drawing for the handsome building which is to be erected on the Strand-Aldwych site as the London headquarters of the Australian Commonwealth. The building, in which the offices of the State of Victoria, already erected, will be included, will consist of eight stories, including the basement and ground floor, and will have a frontage of G2-1 feet to the Strand, Aldwych, and Melbourne Place. An exhibition hall, of 12,.')00 square feet, floored and columned in Australian marble, will occupy nearly the whole of the ground floor. It will k> used for displaying Australian products. Upstairs will lie a lecture hall, reception hall, library (MSOO square fret), and the offices of tho High Commissioner, and the Agents-Gcu-eral uf some of the Australian Stains. The estimated cost of (he building is £223,000, and the site is lo Ijs bought from the London County Council for £364.000. Such a building, in such a localitv, will of itself serve to keep Australia well in the public eye, and it will be n worthy centre for the commercial, financial, social, and quasi-ambassa-dorial activities of the High Commissioner aid Agents-General, When

Mb; Fisher, the Commonwealth Prime Minister, made his" recent statement on the matter to the Federal House of Representatives, he said that if tho New Zealand Government desired to make use of a portion of the site, any proposal to that effect would be most favourably considered. AVe hope this friendly overture will receive every attention, and that steps will be taken to remove the disabilities under which the Dominion now labours for want of suitable headquarters in London.

It seems curious to find the, famous picture "Mona Lisa" talked of in the same breath with the need for Civil Service reform. Yet the French are a logical people, and it was a discussion in their Chamber of Deputies that furnished this rather surprising collocation of ideas. The Deputies were discussing the "Budget of Fine Arts"—or, as we should say, if we had such a thing in New Zealand, the Estimates for the Art Department—and what interested them most, according to one of the newspaper correspondents, was the attack on Sub-Secretary Dujardin-Beaumetz for the theft of the "llona Lisa" under his administration. It was scaled that "officeholding in virtue of-political-influ-ence had debauched all discipline ,,, among the custodians at the Louvre. "The representative of the Government threw the blame on the director—and the Deputies, some of whora must have recommended the negligent guardians for their posts, gave him their support." Of course, we cannot say at this distance whether the disappearance of the famous picturo should be attributed more to the slackness of the custodians or the cleverness of the thieves, but what we do know is that wherever it is customary to appoint men for political reasons to perform duties which should have nothing to do with politics, there will be inefficiency and waste. The loss of a work of art. valued beyond price as one of the wonders of the world, cannot happen every day, but the little leakaees, the divided thoughts, the listless movements of the brain and hand in services where political "colour" counts for more than merit—these are constant factors, and if their sum total of waste could be placed in a clear light before the people many would find it as startling as the theft of the "Mona Lisa."