The New Judge.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 430, 18 March 1890, Page 3

The New Judge.

The Wellington newspapers are warmly discussing the appointment of Mr Edwards to the position of Supreme Court Judge. The Post thus concludes an article

We have accepted the statements of fact from the New Zealand Times, but we at once join issue with it on its attempt to establish an analogy between the appointment of Mr Edwards and that of the Parnell Commissioners. The difference between the two cases is as great as the proverbial one between chalk and cheese. Only a sublimity of ignorance, or a wilful desire to mislead, could prompt the assertion that the appointment of Mr Edwards “stands on precisely the same footing as that of the TimesParnell Commissioners.” The Times-Parnell Commission was the direct creation of Par-

liament, which remitted the enquiry to three old and experienced Judges. Mr Edwards' appointment as Native Commissioner has been made by the Ministry under a general authority, and he is made a Judge of tbe Supreme Court because he is a Native Commissioner. This is a very different thing from being made Commissioner be cause he was a Judge. If Parliament had appointed one of the sitting Judges as Native Commissioner, then the appointment would have stood on the same footing as the Timea-Parnell-Commission. As it is, the attempt to establish an analogy between the two oases has not a leg to stand upon. Equally absurd and m s'eading is tho attempt to make out (that there is no real distinction between the position of officers paid under permanent Acts and those dependent on annual vote. An annual salary can be reduced by a catch vote in Committee of supply in the House of Representatives. A salary fixed by Act can only be altered by. Act, and the passing of an Act is not only a work of time and deliberation, bat an Act of the General Assembly of New Zealand requires the assent of the Three Estates ot Parliament—the Crown, the Legislative Council, and the House of Representatives—before it becomes effective. It has by all constitutional writers been deemed *s essential to preserve the Judges from dependance on tbe popular branch of the Legislature as to ensure their independence of tbe Crown. The Judges owe-allegiance only to the Three Estates combined. They are, or ought to be, independent of any one or tjvq ot those Estates. A Judge dependent lot his salary on the>nnual vote of tbe House ot Representatives in Committee of Supply, ie not in thio position. To represent the Judges who are provided for under the Civil List Act as being •• dependent on the vote of the House " tor their salaries, is a deliberate misstatement ot fact, only' exeuegble 'dp' tfie fery' apparent ground of utter ignorance of the subject on the part pf the Government organ,