The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, MARCH 10, 1903. APPLAUSE IN COURT.

Gisborne Times, Volume IX, Issue 836, 10 March 1903, Page 2

The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, MARCH 10, 1903. APPLAUSE IN COURT.

,c The result was received with loud applause.” Twice during the present sitting of the Supreme Court at Invercargill lias such a report been received of how tilings are conducted in the Court down thfie. It is to he hoped that such conduct is not to become the fashion. It must Ire pleasing to any ri.ghl-minded man to learn that a prisoner is not guilty of an ollence with which he has been suspected, and it Is he tier that many should escape punishment, than that one innocent man should he misjudged. Hut if “ loud applause ” is to be freely tolerated wnenever a verdict is made Uuil meets with the popular view, the line can hardly he drawn against dissent from unpopular verdicts, and worse still, tne friends of prisoners may appear in Court ior the special ooject, ol giving tent to their opinions by applause or otherwise. It is without doubt most unseemly that applause, whether loud, or mere murmurs of approval, should be permitted in a court oi justice. It cannot be prevented beyond the precincts of the court, and there perhaps it should rather be encouraged rhan otherwise, The telegrams make no mention of any attempt to suppress the “ loud applause ’• in the Invercargill Supreme Court, but it is to ne noped that the omission to refer to the Inatter does not implyjthat no such attempt was made, ...