Judicial Homiletics.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 8196, 24 May 1906, Page 7

Judicial Homiletics.

Under the heading of " Judicial Homiietics," the Dunedin Star editorially observesWe cannot help thinking that Sir Robert Stout sometimes goes a little too far in giving .expression ex cathedra to his views on social and semi political phenomena. A judge does not go beyond his province when he points an appropriate moral in sentencing a prisoner who has gone astray owing to excessive indulgence in strong drink. But tho Chief Justice is not content with this reasonable latitude. He insists on airing his prohibitionist opinions od the judicial bench, and attacks, not merely tho habit of excess, but the opportunities offered for the moderate use of alcoholic refreshment. At Wellington he (in effect) lectured a culprit on the folly and iniquity of not being a teetotaller, and went on virtually to tell the electors of a particular district that they had made a mistake in not carrying No-license. 'He had very strong opinions on this question of drinking alcohol. It was a great pity that a public-house should be placed in a district like Newtown.' Everyone knows that the Chief Justice holds very strong opinions on the 'question of drinking alcohol,' but we venture to say that the prohibition meeting, not the Judicial Bench, is the place where those views should find ex pression. We do not wish to be misunderstood. We should not have a word to say if Sir Robert Stout had been satisfied with enlarging on the serious results (personal and social) of excessive indulgence, but we deprecate the censorious reference to alcoholic drinking in any degree, and we object still more strongly to dogmatic and partisan treatment of an issue which, as Sir Robert himself admits, rests with the community. The electors of Ne-wtown had their opportunity last December, and the Judges of the land have no right to censure them for the manned in which they choose to utilise it. The Chief Justice is an excellent and able man, but his interest in politics and philanthropic work makes him rather too fond of more or less irrelevant obiter dicta, and perhaps the time has come for a word of caution."