The Feilding Star. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1888. Grand Jurors

Feilding Star, Volume X, Issue 38, 23 October 1888, Page 2

The Feilding Star. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1888. Grand Jurors

The Wanganui Chroniclejon the 16th October, in a plain, short, and pithy article, draws attention to the grand jury system having become valueless, uselessly cumbrous, and practically effete as any real assistance to the administration of justice. It says : - " The evidence is not placed before the grand jury as it was before the committing Magistrate— frequently iv inverted order, and the grand jury are left to piece it together as they can. The natural consequence is that ' No Bill' is frequently endorsed on an indictment on which the reverse should be written, aud guilty ones are allowed to go scot free, without being called upon tJ enter on any defence." The article goes on to show that the work, which the grand jury does in a lame way, at a great expenditure of time and trouble, by otherwise valuable and experienced business men, could be performed in a more efficient manner in the Crown Solicitor's office, as it is in the Procurator Fiscals. There are few people in the colony who have not known cases where the Magistrates would have been disgraced by not committing, yet there action, in sending a case to be tried by a higher court, has been nullified by the perfunctory performance of the duties of tho grand jury. The Chronicle de-. serves recognition for its pertinent remarks on so important a subject, and we think few will have read them without thoroughly agreeing with the opinion expressed.