SUPREME COURT, AUCKLAND.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3593, 17 January 1883, Page 3

SUPREME COURT, AUCKLAND.

Auckland, This day

The quarterly session of the Supreme Court was opened to-day. Judge Gillies, in his charge to the Grand Jury, stated the calendar comprised the names of thirty-seven prisoners charged with twenty-nine offences, and remarked on the increased of crime in the district, which he found it difficult to account for. A singida r fact was that wh en one or two crimes of a particular character happened in the district others followed. He had no doubt, that sensational accounts in the newspapers had something to do with it, and such reports had a pernicious effect on voting persons and those of an emotional temperament. Referring to _ the Hamilton murder ease, His Honor said that, while investigating', the magistrate had done right in committing the prisoners on the evidence. The Grand Jury would have to be satisfied that the evidence was sufficient to warrant them in believing the prisoners guilty before finding a true bill ; they could take no cognisance of any intention to produce further evidence, however serious the case or strong the suspicion of guilt. The Grand Jury found true bills against R. O. Brigstock and Owen Sims for forgery, Mark Marks and Sampson Joscphson for stealing from a shop, and A. E. Long for attempted parricide. No true bills were found against Annie Stackpole for concealment of birth, and Ellen Curtis for stealing from the person.