The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. THURSDAY, MAY 9, 1907.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2075, 9 May 1907, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. THURSDAY, MAY 9, 1907.

.— — -**. i: Sm Josopli Ward has done some t good during his present trip to Hng- t land in trying to induce the British authorities to alter the composition r| ol' the Appellate division of the Privy , Council, or more properly, tlio Jucli- f dial Committee thereof, and it ho > succeeds in that endeavor he will t have earned much gratitude from those whose misfortune leads them i into litigation that cannot bo finally . decided in the Colonial Courts. At present the colonial experience of the Privy Council appeal business is that it is inordinately expensive, and that 1 vexatious delays always take place which adds not only to the cost, but 1 also to the disadvantage of the liti- i gants in other ways. In addition to : this it has been shown that tlio Lords who preside at the hearing of colon- , ial appeals are not as conversant with colonial law and procedure as they ought to bo, and lienee, wliilo tlioir decisions may square with English law, they are often at varience with tlio opinions of tlio colonial judges who know the circumstances better than their lordships could possibly know them. A curious instance of this occurred a few years ago when the Privy Council Judgos in a case rated the colonial judges for having done something that seemed to the former to have boon quite legally "wrong; but it was the Privy Council that was wrong beeauso of its lack of colonial knowledge. In that I caso the Council went so far as ’ to cast a slur upon the New Zealand bench, a slur that, however, was easily removed when 0 the proper explanation was fortlicom- ’’ ing. The Chief Justice, Sir Robert a Stout, soon put the matter right as e far as the New Zealand bench of judges was concerned; but the incident 6 showed tlio absolute necessity for the e change that is now suggested, viz., II the appointment of a colonial judge ;t to sit with their Lordships when colonial cases are under review. It is not proposed, however, that the colonial judge shall act in any other than an advisory capacity, so that still the final decision shall rest with 1; the Lords of Appeal. The advantage 3 of this plan is so apparent that it is 3 ’ not anticipated there will be any obd jection to its adoption except, the objection that has always been met with, and probably will be always mot with when it is proposed to alter or amend any of the stereotyped methods of ancient British institutions. But that objection must c- crumble before the logic of the posi- -- tion and the necessity for a change I- that has been shown by the circumd stances of the case above referred ” to. The Lord Chancellor who presides at these courts appears to think so top, so there is every prospect of the change being made. By an act passed in 1833 some such plan existed, for under that Act the Judicial -J Committee included two Indian or Colonial retired judges, and it was not until 1876 that further legislation brought about a closer fusion between the Committee and the House of Lords, and left the Colonial judges out of its calculations. We are not aware that any Colonial or Indian Judges ever acted in that capacity, though the law permitted tlieir appointment ; but if the same law exist-

pointment; bui ne same law existed to-day there is little doubt that ,a {Colonial 'Judge or two would be elevated to the rank, and receive the legal status which would enable him or them to sit with the committee on colonial cases. If Sir Joseph Ward would coniine himself to work of this description, and such other work as would benefit the colony of which lie is the representative, we would ungrudgingly accord him all the kudos that he deserves; but when we find him doing other things of which we cannot approve wo must not hesitate to say so. One of these is that he is loading exjienses on to the colony by cabling verbatim reports of his speeches to the Government, in. order that colonists may know wliat an orator he is, for if that is not his object we can conceive no other, seeing that the subject matter of those long and costly cablegrams is not worth a tenth of their transmission charges, or else they could very well •w.ait transmission by mail, and so save the enormous cost. We direct attention to one of these in another column, containing seven hundred and thirty-one words of cabled mattjorj, the Government rato being Is Gf.fd per word, or £56 6s Hid for tho transmission of that message alone, and that is only one of a number that are trickling through the .wires to inform us of Sir Joseph’s outpourings and junketings on his enjoyable trip. If he had left these matters to the ordinary sources of Press information he could rest satisfied that he would have ample justice done him, and this colony would have got all the information it required in regard to his movements and speeches; but with him, as with his predecessor, “money is no object” when it is considered necessary to advertise the chief showman of the Government Menagerie, for these cables are merely advertisements and nothing more. The idea of cabling verbatim reports of banquets at tho public expense is so preposterous (that one wonders at the audacity of the man who would be responsible for it. Can anyone wonder now why there is no money available for roads and bridges, and that back-blocks settlers are left to plough their way through miles of mud when we find the public purse drawn upon for useless cable messages to the extent of £56 in one day. There is but one remedy for such unwarrantable extravagance, and that remedy rests with the toilers themselves, and if they can swallow this kind of thing without a tinge of indignation they are as hopelessly careless of the colony’s interests and the welfare of its settlers as is the man who so flagrantly betrays their sacred trust by authorising the unwarrantable expenditure..