STATE DOCUMENTS

Evening Star, Issue 22449, 21 September 1936, Page 8

STATE DOCUMENTS

THEIR PRODUCTION IN COURT i APPEAL CASE ARGUMENT [Per United Press Association.] WELLINGTON, September 21. In placing the case for the respondent before the Court of Appeal in the case of Rodda and Others v. Lunken, in which objection was taken to producing for inspection certain documents on the ground that they are State documents and privileged, Mr L. T. Burnard made the following submissions:—(l) That the classification of the decisions put forward for tbe appellants was based on an unsound principle, and that the distinctions put forward in that classification were not supported by the cases; (2) that production was generally granted, the Crown’s privilege being a narrow, one, not perhaps completely defined, but not to be extended beyond precedents; (3) that there was an inherent power in the court to inspect documents at any time; (4) that the order for inspection made in the present case could be supported on tbe ground taken in the judgment of the trial judge, Sir John Reed, that objection had merely been taken to the documents as a class, without showing that tbe particular _ documents had been read. He considered that the opportunity which the judge bad given appellants of submitting for the inspection of the court any documents which they objected to produce, was in accordance with the decided cases. The court reserved its decision.