PUBLICLY REBUKED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 March 1943, Page 3

PUBLICLY REBUKED

NEW ZEALAND ALLIANCE. LETTER SENT TO COURT. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, March 29. “The Courts are sacrosanct and mus not be influenced,” said Mr. J. H. Luxford, senior stipendiary magistrate, to- | day, when he publicly rebuked the New Zealand Alliance for the Abolition of the Liquor Traffic for having written to the Court a letter expressing the opinion that the Court should not authorise the superintendent of police to sell liquor seized in sly grog cases, but that it should be destroyed. The magistrate characterised the letter as improper and the alliance’s action as unfortunate. “The letter might be the subject of other proceedings,” he said “An important question of principle is involved. It is the complete independence of the judiciary. This is often spoken of as the last bulwark against oppression and bureaucracy. It is the duty of the

public to refrain from any action which is likely to interfere with the independence of the judiciary, but here we have an organisation making a direct approach to the Court and putting facts before the Court by way of a letter with a view to influencing its decisions.

“The alliance is not an interested party in these proceedings, but only a member of the public. As such it' has the right to criticise the judgments of the Court or to make recommendations on what it thinks should be done either through the correspondence columns of the Press or a public meeting. That is the right of people living under our system of government.”