NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1435, 9 May 1912, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

Most people will agree with the very serious view taken by Me. Justice Chapman yesterday of the offence committed by the man Wic?:s. The sentence passed of four years' imprisonment was, in the circumstances, fully warranted. But while general endorsement will be given to his Honour's views as to the prisoner's gross breach of the trust reposed in him in his treatment, of the child sent to him for tuition there can be little doubt that the learned Judge's comments arc likely to prove, very damaging to those of the. male sex engaged in the teaching of music. It is difficult to believe that his Honour intended this or that it would be warranted if he did. Possibly in his very proper desire to emphasise the gravity of the offence under consideration and to issue a warning in connection therewith which could not escape attention Mb. Justice Chapman stressed that aspect of the matter more than he quite realised.

The trouble which occurred over the selection of tho Australian team to take part in the triangular Test cricket matches in England naturally aroused a great deal of curiosity as to how the team finally chosen would shape. The omission of r.o many of the recognised front-rank-ers, owing to their refusal to give way to the Board of Control in the matter of the management of the team and the resultant inclusion of so large a proportion of new blood, has afforded much opportunity for pessimistic prophecies as to what would happen when the Australian representatives faced the selected of England and South Africa. The pessimist will no doubt point triumphantly to the opening game of the. tour—that against Notts—as an evidence of the soundness of their i judgment. Certainly the team's performance against Notts has been, so far, anything but brilliant. Notts last season was rather a disappointing combination playing extremely well on some occasions, while on others going to pieces in a most unaccountable way. Out of 20 county championship matches played Notts had a record of nine wins and five losses—a moderate performance. It is too early yet, of course, to finally pass judgment on the Australian team; but although very few people would, give them tyiy real chance of success against the team which England is likely to put into the field, it is not at all certain that the South Africans can do any better, if as well. In their opening match against Derbyshire the South Africans have not covered themselves with glory although they have so far rather tho better of the game. Derbyshire, however, was very low down on the county championship list last year, having won only two games out of eighteen played, thirteen being lost. Ths Australians, therefore, seem to have had a rather tougher opening game to face than that which confronted the South African team.

The extraordinary and offensive references to a decision of _ Mn. Justice Sim's made by the Minister for Labour when replying to a deputation on Tuesday is full of significance. Mr. Laurexson, who knows nothing whatever of law, and evidently very little of the spirit of

law, denounced the Judge's decision as to the interpretation of a certain point in an award as the decision of "a fool or a quibbling lawyer." It i« open, of course, to llit. Lauhenson to hold any opinion he chooses concerning the ability of the Judge to interpret laws, although most laymen would be unwilling to sot themselves up as the correctors lof a Judge in such matters. As a ' Minister, also, Mn. Lwjiexsojj is entitled to say, if he chooses, that the law as interpreted works in a way which ho dislikes and that he will endeavour to have it amended. But there is no excuse whatever for him as a layman or as a Minister when he makes what really amounts to an impudent attack upon (In- capacity of a Judge of the Supreme Court carrying out his judicial uflice. It is just as well to know, however, the sort of mind which Mis. Laurexsox brings to the government of the country. When he s-siid that the Judge's decision was one of which only a fool or a quibbling lawyer would he capable, he did not mean that the Judge was a fool. Obviously, he regards the decision as a legal quibble—quibbling being a careful reading of the law's moaning and intention. Judge Sim will in future know that unless in his judgments he disregards the law and decides as Mn. Lauiiekson would have him decide, he will expose himself to further similar comment from the same quarter. His business, apparently, is not to take the law as he finds it hut to please the Itndicals in the Ministry. Mn. Lavhrxsox | will enjoy his Ministerial position only no doiibt for a little* while longer so that there is no cause for the alarm that law-abiding and moderate people might feel if his sort of ideas were to direct the course of government.