CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 175, 3 November 1910, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

INDEPENDENCE OF MAGISTRATES. | It has often been alleged that our Stipen-1 diary Magistrates have not been allowed independence, anl another allegation that appointments to the Bench in recent years have been made because the appointees were known to be men who could be influenced need a refutation. When Mr. H. Northcroft, a Magistrate with long service, on his retirement takes the trouble to allege that the Bench is I subject to political influence, the question becomes one of extreme gravity. The allegations made by Mr. Northcroft should be examined with the greatest carefulness, for if it is true that pressure is brought to bear on Magistrates to divert the course of justice, the public is being seriously injured. Whether the public are going to worry about the alleged inspired partiality of Magistrates is another question, but if it worries about anything at all, here is a subject worthy of its examination. We are often treated to refreshing instances of the independence of Supreme Court Judges. There is no earthly reason why = a Magistrate in his own jurisdiction should not be allowed the same independence as a Judge. On the other hand, there seems to be no reason why Magistrates generally have not proceeded exactly as if politicians did not exist. We take the liberty of saying that no magistrate who would allow himself to be dictated to by any party, political or otherwise, is worthy of his position, and that if Mr. Nonlicroft's allegations can be substantiated by definite facts, the weakness has been on the part of the Magisterial Bench in allowing influence to affect its judgments. In the meantime, specific instances in which the independence of Magistrates has been undermined are necessary to nail down the allegations. If the allegations are true the public is being dishonestly served by the State. If it is recognised that Supreme Court Judges are the only politically uninfluenced persons in New Zealand, and if it is within their province to enquire into Mr. Northcroft's charges, an instant enquiry should be made by them before the alleged evil is allowed to magnify. The Attorney-General says he is quite unable to understand Mr. Xorthcroft's remarks and could only ask him to mention any circumstances which would bear out his statements. Mr. Northcroft has now the opportunity of being more definite, and substantiating his charges.

JOURNALISTIC ETIQUETTE. We regret that the Taranaki Herald should have thought it necessary to transgress one of the commonest rules of journalistic etiquette in its issue of yesterday. It permitted the publication of a letter. 'The Down-trodden Maidservant," over the signature of "Martha," a letter which traversed matter published in the editorial columns of this paper. Probably "Martha," as well as our contemporary, knows that it is distinctly irregular either for a correspondent to use one paper to transverse the statements made in another, or for a paper to use such letters. We believe we are right in saying that a breach of the kind has not occurred in any other New Zealand publication of any standing for some years. " MARY." If any ordinary Sarah Jane or Polly Ann claimed recognition of the fact that she had a friend named Matilda who would like a handsome present she would be unable to obtain the services of the Press of the Empire. The Queen of England is called ''Mary," and she cannot help it. Mary is a very nice name indeed, and it seems to have given the Marchioness of Bute a chance for a glorious advertisement on her own behalf. She proposes that all the Marys, Mays, Marions and Marias of the Empire shall give the Queen a Coronation present, and the industrious admirers of everything titular can, of course, be depended on to keep the snowball rolling. If the women of the Empire want to give Queen Mary a present, it seems a little hard that they are debarred from entering the lists because their names are Alice, or Prisciila, Ermyntrude, Arabella Gertie, Victoria, Angelina or Martha. If the present to be purchased with the money that the Marys—and those of allied names—is to be a personal present to the Queen, there seems to be absolutely nothing in the idea except to satisfy the personal vanity on the part of a marchioness who i's also a Mary. If the vast sum to be collected—and you may be sure the advertising will be well done and not charged for at space rates — is to be devoted to a Mary Home or a Alary College or a Mary institution for the betterment of Marys generally, well and good, but there seems to be no reason why the Pollys should not both subscribe and benefit. If the great sum to be raised is to purchase a few more diamonds to be stowed away in the Tower and to be guarded by grenadiers, it seems a painfully silly proceeding. If the Queen is the strong-minded woman I she is credited with being, she should insist that Mary oi Bute should adverin the ordinary way her exceedingly business-like proposition. In effect, the business proposition put before the Marys and Marions and Marias and Mays is this: '"Your parents having registered you in the name of Marv (etc.), | now therefore I, Mary of Bute, marchioness, in consideration of the sum of one shilling or more, paid by you to me, do hereby covenant and agree with you that you share with her Majesty the Queen the honor of possessing the same Christian name." The Marvs of the Empiie should get a leading Mary to write to the Chancellor of the Exchequer authorising him to withdraw from the public funds sufficient money to buy the Queen anything she may choose from the best Bond-street jeweller and to deduct it from the Royal allowance made and provided by the Civil List. But perhaps Alary Marchioness of Bute may be a humorist in disguise, and is getting wider publication of her jest than any professional maker of jokes could ever hope for ; Company-promoting on such a larse, scale is novel among the nobilitv. c