CHIEF JUSTICESHIP

Hokitika Guardian, 3 December 1925, Page 4

CHIEF JUSTICESHIP

THE. I.ABOCR LEADER'S BLEND UR. (l.yilellnll Timesl. The attempt that is being made to promote a cot.trn. ersy i oncoming the appointment < ( Mr Skerrett to be C hief Justice must be promptly discouraged. Air Mr. Hand's attack was utterly without 1 ust it'r. at ion. The Labour leader knows perfectly well that immediately an iiidividmd I, comes the Judge of a Briti-Ji C Min lie cases to have any political colour or political interest. He i- no longer a partisan, and bis obligation and his oath alike require him to put aside partial inter.st. British justice speaks tor hx-ll'. It runs throughout Hie world as even-handed an I lice from reproach, and it holds that reputal ion solely because its Judges have obeyed implicitly tlm traditional and intrinsic obligation ot the strielcsL impart ialilv. Mr Holland's attack on a judicial annoiui iiicnl. involving. as ii dues. „ direct accusation of part .ialilv, in an attack on British justice. It injures no one but liiniscll. The Government is remote from criticism in such a matter. It disarmed criticism, indeed, when it called to the office one of the most distinguished of the Dominion's barristers. Air Skerrel.t., even more emphatically, stands beyond the reach of criticism, bemuse, si in-? lie cannot reply, lie cannot be attacked. The administration of justice in .New Zealand, again, cannot bo prejudiced bv the Labour leader’s rash words, and so the only end of (be attack is lo discredit Atr Holland hitli-s-lf. As reprehensible as Mr Holland's outburst, surely, is the reply of the secretary of the Welfare League, who should have known better than to mate the Labour leader’s offence the basis of a controversial rejoinder.