THE TAUMARUNUI LICENSES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 115, 12 June 1909, Page 6

THE TAUMARUNUI LICENSES.

To' the Editor. Wr—Your leader on tin- above iiml other strictures in riie press st;eiii u) call lor s.inie remarks, as to the legal uspuet of the action of the Licensing Committee, other than those which have already been made. I cannot think it lair that that body should be condemned as it has been, by a conclave m j. • hibitionists and their sympathisers on the Press without soiuenone canny attention to the legal aspect of tiie case. Because a mistake has been in existence for a long period as to the legal position in a certain district by which a considerable body of settlers have been excluded from their just rights and conveniences; i it does not follow that this condition 1 of things should go on ad iiiiiuituui There has been fur years a bitter cr,\ from the move thoughtful residents there, "If you have any regard for oui moral well-being and the suppression o intemperance, give us licenses, and Uun suppress tile rampant sly grog selling with all its attendant evils." -Vow tna; the first step in this direction lias been very properly made, we have a lamentable howl from those sworn to suppress the use of liquor entirely; a petition to tlie Attorney-General 10 thwart the due processes of the law; and an appeal from legality to public opinion and the spirit of the times—as interpreted by tac Alliance and their friends in the Press Similarly we lately read a good deal in tiie American papers of the higher law, which we were told condoned assassination and murder in cold blood; but which, after all, was not allowed entirely to over-ride the law, even in Xew York. Why do we appoint duly qnulilicd legal gentlemen to important judicial positions but to put the statutory law in forte? Is it to be coolly argued that they may, if they think such a course popular, ignore the law of tin- land, in order to placate public opinion and the spirit of the times as interpreted by a , coterie of ova heated enthusiasts'; Then] who is to judge what is public opinion \ and what is the spirit of the times? tt is because Pontus l'ilate gave way to public opinion—in a body of which the . Alliance is a very near representative—and because Judge Jeffries marched with the spirit of the wines., mat they are now execrated as unjust judges. When men in the position of Mr. Fitz- [ berbert, remembering their oath to ' justly and impartially administer the laws, conscientiously ilo so, they may, and frequently do, run counter to public opinion. But tliey have the satisfaction to know they have done tlreir duty and preserved the rights and liberties of the public. Despite the suggestions of your Wanganui contemporary, or the more explicit condemnation of other journals, it is quite certain that a qualified legal gentleman, sitting in a judicial, or ministerial capacity, is a much better exponent of the law than any member of a newspaper stall, whose legal knowledge can be only superficial, and who, in the nature of things, is moie w>nccnted ith questions of what is popular with its readers than with what is legal. Pressmen, doubtless, are usually actuated by excellent motives; but wane i them, publication, and what they recognise as the spirit of the times are matters of great moment, they should be or little or no importance to whose concern is only with the proper administration of the law. It will be a sad day for any state when its judiciary are governed by public opinion, or the spirit of the times. As to a Press which is thus guided where it should lead one does not wish to make any stricture.— I am, etc., B. ENROTH.