Wellington Supreme Court.

Feilding Star, Volume XVII, Issue 131, 2 December 1895, Page 3

Wellington Supreme Court.

o— — (Per Press Association.) Wellington, This Day. In charging the Grand Jnry this morning the Chief Justice said the cases in the calendar were more numerous than usual, probabiy owing to the fact that the sessions had to be adjourned, and some committals had taken place since the date first fired for the sittings. Referring to the abortion charges His Honor said evidence of other acts of a similar kind, by the same accused, would be laid before the jury, and they should consider this ' apart from any subsequent argument as to ita admi-sability. Proof of charges of this nature was exceptionally difficult. His Honor then went on to refer to many cases of failure of justice that bad occurred in charges such as these, and also in cases of criminal assault on children, a state of things which be attributed to the J alteration in the law ot evidence. The j law in this respect seemed to be in favor of persons charged with the very worst form ofcrime. He considered it his duty to call attention to this flaw in the law of evidence, and regretted this colony had not availed itself of the experience of other colonies in regard to these cases. At a later stage the Chief Justice recalled the foreman of the Grand Jury, and explained that in making his strictures with regard to the law on evidence, he had overlooked section 9 of the Evidence Further Amendment Act of last session, which provided that a doctor's evidence as to the nature of a charge could be accepted without reservation in a criminal case but not in a civil case. His strictures, therefore, must be taken to apply only to civil cases.

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