SUPREME COURT.

Evening Star, Issue 3785, 12 April 1875, Page 3

SUPREME COURT.

CRIMINAL SESSIONS. Monday, April 12. (Before his Honor the Chief Justice.) The criminal session of the Supreme Court was opened at ten o'clock this morning, when the following were sworn as the Grand Jury;— Messrs E. B. Cargill (foreman), G. Brown, Jas. Curie. John Findlay, A C. Begg, A Beverley, J. L. Butterworth, J. F. Coyle, R. Dalgleiah, T. S. Graham, D. Grant, J. Kilgour, R. H. Leary, G, Miller, J. T. Mackerras, H. M'Neil, C. F, Black, G. S. Brodiick, C. Flexman, It. Glendinning, and E. Prosser. His Honor delivered the following charge :— : Mr Foreman and Gentlemen of the Grand Jury As you are .aware, since your last assemblage here Mr Justice Chapman has retired from office and Mr Justice Williams has had this district assigned to him. lam quite sure yon will expect that I should consider it my duty to ash your attention to the foot that Mr Justice Chapman has, after having served the country for a very long time in the high office which he.has held with satisfaction to the public, find certainly with very great satisfaction to those who practised before mm, now thought it proper to retire from that office with the provision that has been madafor hi™ under the law. Gentlemen, it is now about twelve years since I first commenced to practise in this court, and very soon afterwards Mr Justice Chapman was appointed to this court. You are aware that ho'camefrom Victoria, where he had practised for dome time, and for a time acted as Judge, and-he was able to give ns wh&t we very muon wonted here—practical experience. I believe that, with the exception of my friend Mr Barton, : there was not another gentleman practising in this' court who had had ranch public experience. Qeu-; tlemen, you mast be aware that Mr. Justice Chapman has discharged his duties with great ability,' great.perseverance, great patience, and great pains-' taking. I need scarcely say more; indeed, it ecaiteiy becomes me to express an opinion os to .the, manner in . .which he has performed his duties. One other matter—before we proceed to what may be called 'the real business of the day—l mean the loss the country has sustained by the death of Mr Wilson Gray. It is, I think, an appropriate occasion on which Juab to mention that wmoh.l believe the public at large feel tq be a serious loss. So.mnoh has been said—and properly said—by the phblio Press, that I J think I need no further refer to this matter, Now, gentle: men, there is another matter which perhaps I might mention. During the last session of the General .Assembly on Act was passed for the purpose of ■gtrmg to justices the pOWdcof disposing of cases of false pretences and embezzlement of Htnall amounts, and that, gentlemen, has, I 'dare say, ; reduced the "calendar on this occasion. Yon probably will think it was. a very proper improvement of (he law, for. Os yon must be aware, persons in the country and often . in the towns are constantly in the habit of accepting, jferTmps improperly, small cheques/scarcely knowing anything of the. persona presenting then). These cases involved very considerable cost to the. country, which for the future. may be greatly avoided. I believe there have been already some instances where ■ jurisdiction has . been exercised under this Act, which will probably account for there being no inatances in this calendar of what is called false pretence by passing valueless cheques. Now, gentlemen, with regard to the calendar itself. T think there is no particular moralto be drawn from it. It is no doubt the fact that there are four homicides in the list; and it is also the fast, so for as 1 can ascertain from the depositions, (hat hVlf of the offences may be said to be attributable to drunkenness. It is unfortunate, no doubt, that wehaveon this particular occasion-in one calendar four homicides; but 1 have carefully looked through the depositions, and certainly cannot see that any person can deduce from the circninstances of those cases that theyare instances of any particular state of morality, or want of morality; in this community. Now we know that in England the newspapers are full of complaints of violent attacks made by brutal men.appn anpffending persons. There is no such case here. The cases, such as they are, do not, in my judgment, indicate any state of society calling for particular observation. I may say the same with regard even to offences Of another class—offences against women: rape or attempted rape. We know in various parts of the country there sometimes crop np, or seem to occur, n number or instances of attacks upon children young girls away from protection, and in out of the way pans. No such instance occurs in this calendar. Then ore three charges, all offences of this kind, but they cannot, and dp not indicate, so far as I con see, any particular state Of society which calls for observation. Now, gentlemen, having made that observation, and also asking you to draw your attention to the fact, at least as it seems to me, that half of these offences, arise through drinking intoxicating liquors Immoderately, I have now to come to the particular cases which I have (o . assist yon to come to a conclusion upon. There is in this calendar a charge of child by a young woman. These cases involve considerable difficulties; but, gentlemen, I apprehend yon will not go into those , as you have often heard, I have no doubt, from the able Judge who filled bis seat before ■ me, that in cases of homicide it is sufficient lor the Grand Jury to have proved to their satisfaction to know that death has been caused by the act of the person charged. Now, if you find, as I have no doubt yon will find in this case, and certainly ia.threo, if not in four cases, that death > .. .was canaed.by,the-Act of the persons charged, you will probably he content-to ’find bids. Three of those cases arecharges pf murder and one is of manslaughter. To one charge of murder I ahull call your attention presently. I shall have to ask your particular attention to it, .because it may be that under the instruction I shall give you, yon probably will think, when the evidence comes before you, there is hot sufficient to place the prisoner on trial at all; for it may appear to yon that death was not _ caused by the act of the person charged. Eeverting ‘ the cjwxge of murdering a child, you will have to satisfied with the evidence—and very little evidence will probably satisfy you—the medical'evidence most probably yon will think sufficient to put the person charged oh trial. It is, however, necessary that you Should be satisfied with the prima facie evidence that the child was bom alive: that is nt the time when the wounds of which the child ultimately died were committed; that the wounds which caused its death Were inflicted after the child became what the law c:ills “a reasonable creature in being.” I believe you are well. owMre that you' have only to see whether there If •sufficient evidence to put the accused on trial by tile petiy jury. Ton are not to go into the question whether prmoner ia or is not conclusively gtilty. I shall therefore say no more on that case. In one of the other charges of murder, you may probably think, at any rate there may he some probability, that the person able to establish, that he has not committed the grave offence of murder, but has only rendered himself responsible for having commiitod mandaughter; and it appears to me you will probably think it better, as there is no doubt a homcide has been committed, that it is your duty' evidence that will come before yon and he adduced P7 (neatnesses whose names appear on the hack of *v at d^ lth *“ not caused by the the blow er wound that caused death was inflicted under circumstances that clearly reduce the charge from murder to manslaughter. You are, probably, w^Ai_ awara In the nature of (fcarges °f 'the greater and lesser offences. Now. With reto these offences of manslaughter. Supposing ypu mine to the conclusion and are satisfied there is a_ sufficient prima facie case against the person charged, that his act caused the death of the deceased, if you even consider he had not the intention todOMy gnevous bodily harm to the person, then you will say this is that of manslaughter The case . I refer to is that of MiU™wX^ardto the i Imrcemea, I need not say one word. They all seem to he matters on winch you con come to a conclusion without any assistance from me. There ore two 1 referred to of attacks upon at t^ ns 6u * h o * ll the offences chained happened some time smee—two years ago. The prisoner is in both. ladX stem father to the two children. He la charged ■ V wpe on olie wile s children, and the other offence is what is statatonly caUed “carnally «nt£i H* 7 ®” 8 ?«e. M Those offencMul allied to. have happened two years ago. It to mo that that foot ought to mdnee yon to decline to find a Bill against the parson charged, simply because the two children, occupying flic position they do, as regards their stepfat££“W SSb pro* claimed an earfier charge-that is to say, neither they nor their friends made the subject a criminal charge. If yon are satisfied that the witnesses are trustworthy, ypu ought not, it seems to me, to condude, merely from the fact that the charge has not been brought into Court for some time, that therefore the witnesses ore not trustworthy. There is ■ one case of arson—of burning a stack; and of stealing from a wool store. Of those two I may make this general observationlt must, in your experience, constantly happen that in criminal cases we cannot always expect to have brought before ns eye-witnesses of the crime. But if wo And that circumstances are proved that ore consistent only with the supposition that the pemon charged has committed the offence, that in rS? 61 !— 8 m ™°l e ht evidence for you to act upon, iim two cases in (his calendar of arson and robbing 810 charges: to which this principle mry , ob “ t " u «“ 1 ”” , xr BOBBBET VBOM Tflß PERSON. b a^^^ roe J . (undefended )WAs indicted for October stolen from - on l dohn Quin, Lll in money, thA /EH Case Was a Bim pie one. On ■ V- 6 Quin, a miner, ; ofa woman bf ill-fame who lived off Staft- ■** & - aild . settlS£..$ ettl S£.. intoxicated went •r. •»-; i W® '/VL * While asleep Pearc » who was fn tbe bouaC at the time Quin entered took from thf latter’s Sd wit h 't cut out Quins waistcoat pocket, in which weio

a LlO-note, a 11-note, some silver, and two gold rings. This he was seen to do bjr Kane, who remonstrated with him, telling him that Quin bqd been kind to her, and it was a shame to rob him. As Quin awoke, Pearce made off, and going to one - -myn a bricklayer’s laborer, residing street, told him how he committed ;m Stafforu -,ri asked him to “ plant ” the the robbery, a*. '<*.n refused to do. Subse things, which ,man that hs had quently Pearce told Ease Uce had not planted tnetn nimself. and the been able to discover them. -.,4. The jury returned a verdict of “No, guilty.” ASSAULTING A POLICE CONSTABLE. ’ John Hagerty was indiated for having, at Green Island, on February 11, assaulted Constable Vernon. Prisoner was not defended. Two counts had been filed—one for assaulting Vernon whilst in the execution of his duty, the other for common assault. For the defence, Francis Porter, hotel-keeper, Caversbam, was called, but prisoner failed to elicit anything from him. He said that he had known prisoner for four years, and that ho appeared to him to wander in his mind. Prisoner, in addressing the jury, said that he was called upon by the Constable to “ stand, in the Queen’s name,” and, because he said that ha. did not know the Queen, the constable attempted to arrest him, and hence the charge. His Honor said that the evidence of Porter as to the prisoner being of a wandering tarn of mind, was not, in his opinion, sufficiently strong to cause the jury to believe that he was not responsible for his actions. Much stronger evidence would be required. It was not because a man was. frantic at times that he was not to be held responsible for his deeds. The jury had not returned a verdict at 4.30 p.m. BATE. The charge of rape against. George Johnson was beipg proceeded with at four o’clock. > THE GRAND JOBV, On returning true bills upon all .the indictments subnutted for their consideration, were released Until to-morrow. We understand that Mr W. 0. Stewart has generously undertaken tbedefepee of Walter, charged with manslaughter, and Mr W. W. Taylor, of Tokotnairiro, has offered to assist Mr Stewart.