FRIDAY, AUGUST 11, 1871.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2647, 11 August 1871, Page 2

FRIDAY, AUGUST 11, 1871.

On Monday, oar contemporary the Daily Times published an article from the Melbourne Aryus respecting the administration of justice in New Zealand, and then proceeded to make some most unwarrantable comments upon it. Had there not been a case pending in the Magistrate’s Court in some degree connected with the matters dragged into notice, we should have earlier drawn attention to the true state of the case; but now that the prudent step has been taken of withdrawing all further opposition to the construction of the road across Anderson’s Bay, such silence is no longer required. One would have thought our contemporary, instead of exhibiting the consequences of the disgrace brought upon the Colony by his own mis-statements, would have shrunk from the exposure ns laying him open to the reprobation of all honest men. But, instead of that, he goes on to add to the degradation of the Colony by a moat unwarrantable attack upon the Besideut

Magistrates. Who unacquainted with the facts would imagine, for a moment, that the article "so boldly flaunted from the Arons was based upon the idea that what the Daily Times published with regard to Mr Lemon’s case was true '? Who, on reading the article in the Dali;/ Times on Monday, would believe that that smoothtongued hypocrisy was but “ autho- “ rity and shew of truth for “ cun- “ ning sin ” to “ cover itself withal ” 'I We will not go so far as to imagine that the Ary as inserted an article exported from New Zealand for the purpose of degrading the Colony in the eyes of other nations ; although this may have been done : but we will say that the cases cited as instances of “tr addin;/ ” to the powers that be, by the resident magistrates rather prove even by the 2’imcs's report that those magistrates have shielded, at least Mr Lemon, from a most unprincipled and unfounded accusation. But not content with maligning the magistrates at Wellington, the Daily Times proceeds to insinuate that the Bench at Dunedin were influenced by the Government in their decision in the late proceedings against the Superintendent. It is not a direct charge of unfairness that is brought. In fact, taking into consideration the almost unheard-of latitude allowed to the counsel for the prosecution in the investigation of the matter, the positive help given him to make the very most he could of the charge, the patient endurance of most tedious technical objections wherever impediments, legal or logical, could be thrown in the way of a full and fair exposition of the truth, any observer would almost have been led to the belief that if there were a bias, it was in favor of the prosecutor rather than the Government. We unhesitatingly assert that in our experience, which has not been limited to the Courts of the Province nor the Australasian Colonies, we never saw cases more impartially conducted than those prosecutions —including thatjagainst Mr Lemon —of the decisions in which the Daily Times complains. Nor is' our unscrupulous contemporary correct in asserting that in preliminary enquiries a magistrate should be called upon to give his reasons. In short, there are good grounds why they should not be stated. All that he has to decide is whether, on the facts disclosed, there is foundation for the charge that the law has been broken. To give reasons for the opinion that it has not, might prejudice proceedings if taken in a higher Court, in such a case as that of Holmes v. Macandrew ; and to decide upon the true reading ot an Act of Parliament, is to put arms into the hand of one party or the other, and in some degree to interfere with the province of the Judge of the Superior Court. When a magistrate dismisses a case he need give no reason, for he thereby intimates that no offence has been committed. In the case of Holmes v. Macandrew, the inference was plain enough. It was as much as to say You charge his Honor with having been guilty of committing a nuisance by the formation of this road, and vou base your charge upon certain Acts.” The facts brought before us do not bear out your charge. On still higher grounds, when committing a prisoner, no reason should be given ; for those reasons might prejudice future proceedings when he stands before a jury. On every ground, therefore, we condemn the conduct of the Daily Times in its unfair comments upon our Magistracy. No object can be gained by it. If ever the truth, and the part that our contemporary has taken in relation to it, goes forth to the world, the consequence will be that no respectable journal, outside the Colony, will dare to reproduce anything on its authority ; while every colonist has a right to complain that New Zealand has been libelled in its columns for no other purpose, apparently, than the gratification of political, or haply, private feelings.