Noojee, 1 March 1939

The Commissioner:
I wish to make it clear at the outset that this is not an inquisitorial Commission. I do not represent any punitive or detection arm of the law; I am here merely to arrive at the broad causes of the recent fire disasters and to make recommendations later, if any suggest themselves to me, for future assistance.

If any person feels embarrassed by being asked to give evidence, or if he feels that he may incriminate himself, he has only to say so, and he will be given the protection which the law affords him.

Speaking at the opening of hearings at Noojee, 1 March 1939:
I wish to refer shortly to a matter which appears to me to be of the gravest possible importance. In the Sun newspaper this morning there appears a headline which is entirely false concerning a gentleman named Elsey, who gave evidence before this Royal Commission yesterday.

The newspaper would make it appear, and, in fact, directly asserts that I rebuked the witness. That statement is an entirely false statement, quite in keeping with the campaign of false representation that has followed the proceedings of this Commission, so far as a certain section of the press is concerned.

At Alexandra, I very quietly told one gentleman that he had been guilty of prevarication. I did so, as I then explained, so that others might not be tempted to do the same.

The Herald newspaper blasted that unfortunate man, who was in a most extremely difficult position - blasted his reputation by printing a poster which it displayed throughout the country - drawing attention to the fact that I had warned him, or rebuked him, or some extravagant term of that sort.

Today in that section of the press which is printed for the more unintelligent, who can absorb their news only in picture form apparently, we have another man's reputation blasted, and that unfortunate man apparently has no redress.

As far as my own part in this Royal Commission is concerned, the newspapers have made it appear to any thoughtful reader that I have been so prejudiced that I should not be permitted any longer to hold judicial office. The lightest remark is taken out of its context and printed in what, in essence, is a blackguardly lie. That occurs daily.

One must live by some standard of justice and fairness. The press, in a campaign against one body - the Forests Commission - and any unfortunate officer to whom I might address the lightest remark, is driving me, or would drive me as one who is very human and loves justice, to be very one-sided and unfair, and to come to the rescue of the Forests Commission and its officers, who are being daily mendaciously and libellously assailed by the press.

Those of you who have been with me in this Commission know that there is no foundation for these distorted reports which have dogged our footsteps since we left Melbourne, and if they are to continue I shall take the course that I have suggested [and exclude the press]. I do not expect the paper, whose policy or whose utterances are guided by a type of mentality which will distort the irrelevancies to the detriment of helpless people, to have the grace to apologise for what it has done; but, unless it does apologise to Mr. Elsey in particular, I will exclude it from further proceedings. The other newspapers are not blameless, and if there is any more of this distortion, I will exclude them also.

Speaking at the end of the Commission's public hearings:
We have worked together in most trying circumstances. We have suffered acute physical conditions and have sat in places and temperatures where men's tempers might well have become frayed.

I am happy to think that through all those days, some dreadful days, although we adopted a free and easy method of procedure, no one for a moment lost sight of proper decorum, which after all should be the over-riding consideration in public sittings of a judicial or semi-judicial nature.

In the first weeks when the thermometer went from between 105 degrees in the shade to 115 degrees in the shade and we thought it would never come down again, your industry and interest never flagged.

Read the newspaper article that Judge Stretton refers to in the Newspaper section