THE NEW STAMP ACT.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4506, 30 August 1875, Page 5

THE NEW STAMP ACT.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW ZEALAND TIMES. Silt,-The correspondence on the proposed new Stamp Act in your columns, and tho rather frequent complaints of the careless way in which our Acts of Parliament are often drawn or passed through the Assembly, has led me to think that we might have a considerable improvement in the construction of our laws were the Judges of the Supreme Court made ex officio members of the Legislative Council. ' Of course a good deal could be said against such a change, but I think that the advantages ensuing from it would be greater than the disadvantages. The experience which the Judges, especially after they had held their oflices for some time, would'be able to bring to bear on the consideration of law reforms, would be of great value to the country. As I would propose that they should hold their seats as Councillors by virtue of their office, they would be under no obligations to any Ministry for their position as Councillors. It might he said that as the Ministry created them Judges, Ministers would therefore practically have the power of giving them seats in the Council. But this objection could be met by requiring them to serve a certain period as Judges before they became entitled to enter the Council, by which course the composition of the Ministry would probably have altered very much, and tho Judges connection with or affection for any one political party have greatly altered or cooled before they entered Parliament. Again, it might be said that when once in the Council, and having of course to vote and speak on party questions, they would be biassed and partial Judges in cases where political opponents or friends were concerned, either as counsel or as litigants. But this has not been found to be the case in England, where the highest Judges of the land are ex officio members of the Upper House of Parliament. I venture to say that the decisions of no Judges are so free from suspicion as those of the House of Lords'; and frequently now-a-days Judges holding seats in the Westminster Courts obtain peerages, and I am sure it has not been found to influence their judicial conduct at all. Some of such Judges have been in their day strong political partisans, such, for instance, as tho now Lord Coleridge. But it will be objected—New Zealand is as yet so small, and everybody knows everybody else so much that the danger will be greater here than in a thickly populated place like England ; but to this I would answer that when the Judges are located in Wellington, and go on circuit (a different circuit for each Judge each time), they will soon lose their local feelings, and be then generally called to decide in cases where they knew nothing of the parties personally, the opposite of which is the case now. The presence of the Judges in Parliament would also be a very wholesome check upon such treatment of them as that of which Mr. Rolleston has properly taken so many opportunities to complain this session. I am not sure also that a certain amount of political training, either while holding the judicial office or before their elevation to the Bench, is not often rather a good thing for the Judges. It tends to make them less narrow-minded, less technical in their views of disputed questions, than a merely legal training does. But certainly the great advantage of the change which I advocate would be the assistance of the Judges in framing and passing Acts relating to the procedure and practice of the courts of law, to the amendment of all laws relating to commercial matters, and, indeed, relating to all questions not purely financial or political. And, after all, it is laws 011 such subjects that most closely affect the happiness of the community. It is more important to have wise and good laws as between man and man honestly and wisely administered than it is to have any particular code affecting the relations of government and governed, except, of course, when questions of liberty are concerned. But, indeed, as to Acts even on financial or party questions the Judges might do great service by seeing that the wording of them was clear, and free from such ambiguities as we know are so constantly occurring. • Another obiection might be that in debating the construction of a clause in an Act or a proposed Act, or in discussing such a question as the power of Parliament to enact the proposed constitutional changes, the Judges might often have to give opinions on questions which might come before them judicially ; but I do not think this has been found a difficulty with the House of Lords, and I do not see why it should be here. AVe ought to trust somewhat to the" integrity of our Judges, which has never been impeached. AVe ought rather by paying them -well, by a healthy public opinion regarding the dignity and sacredness of their office, and in all respects by making judgships prizes for the best men, thus to secure our having Judges who could safely be trusted with large powers, and with a share in law-making as well as law administering.—l am, &c.