North and South
January 2002
(publication
date December 10, 2001)
Letters
Page 15
Slow Readers?
I find it strange
that so little has been mentioned of Lynley Hood's book on the Christchurch
Civic Creche case. Is it that New Zealand is a nation of slow readers? People
are certainly buying A City Posessed as the best seller list indicates.
More obvious,
though, than the lack of comment on Hood's book is the silence from the police,
social welfare and complainant parents. The treatment these three groups
receive in the book is rough, to say the least, whatever the merits of Hood's
arguments.
Now, thanks to
Hood, the Civic Creche case has been put into the context of the criminal justice
system, police investigation and child interview techniques and the history of
public hysteria, I fear the problem has become too big to deal with. A fear that
a thorough official examination of the case would open up a can of worms so
huge that it could not be contained by anything - including the government.
There is some
debate at the moment about whether it is time for New Zealand to dispense with
the Privy Council. One of the arguments against this move is that New Zealand
has yet to show enough maturity in its own courts to cut itself off from this
court of last resort.
But how much
assistance has the Privy Council really rendered to New Zealand in the past?
The council's refusal to even hear the case against Arthur Thomas might
indicate that it too, like New Zealand's own courts, has its limitations.
That we were able
to resolve the Thomas case ourselves - albeit with the help of an Australian judge
- is an indication we are capable of finding our own way. But even after all
the reviews held into Ellis' convictions, are New Zealanders really sure we
have found our way in this matter?
Sheffield,
Canterbury