The Fielding Star, OROUA & KIWITEA COUNTIES GAZETTE. Published Daily. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1897. BLIND JUSTICE.

Feilding Star, Volume XIX, Issue 60, 8 September 1897, Page 2

The Fielding Star, OROUA & KIWITEA COUNTIES GAZETTE. Published Daily. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1897. BLIND JUSTICE.

The vagaries of Wellington juries, especially in cases of criminal trials, are something fearful and wonderful. So much so indeed that whan a verdict of " guilty " is brought in against some notorious scoundrel, the fact excites a considerable degree .f astonishment. This state of affairs means neither more nor less than that the great mass of the publio from which the common juries are drawn, art in sympathy with the criminal classes, and in opposition to those few who ar» in favor of the preservation of law and order, and the punishment of crime. Various remedies have been suggested, one for instance is to abolish trial by jury, or failing that to hold the criminal sessions of ihe Supreme Court in the purer and ' more moral atmosphere of the country i'M:nc'« where the corrupting influences .'.lnch obtnin where there are large of people, are not to be die-■.v-r«-d. These plans have much to ■■• cutiiiner'.d them, but they are not yet i> *iible. Public opinion will have to be .•ry much changed before trial by jury is tmlishfd, and while it is profitable for wns <>nd cities to have crimmal and •<.;' oses heard within their boundaries c -i (•■'»!;• large sums of money to be spent* it ' ■• '■- b any change in that d ir- i'i> ■■< affected. In our oiiua hi '-ho mo.*t simple way to abate, if nut to tbolish, the evil would b» to do away with the right of cbal len^o, aud to make no exceptions to those liable to po-rve aa jurymen. That would certainly raise the tone of the panel, and vo fnr to sficnre honest verdicts in ,icoorda..c-ft with the evidence. There is el ways a cenain rivalry between Wellington and Auckland, and the Auckland Herald maintains that th« epi demic of crime which now prevails there is due to tho suborning of witnesses And the embracery of common jurors. One contemporary says "It is a matter of common knowledge and of free conversation that for a certain sum ranging from £v upwards witnesses can be procured «nci purchased to wwear anything tl)at may oe uece.ss.iry for perverting justice iv our Courts; and that through the same agency juries are approached with the object of defeating the ends of Justice " This may or may not be quite true, but both cases, that is, of the Empire City and of Auckland, show that the time has arrived for the initiation of a letter state of things, aud for a reformation in the system of preventing, detecting, and punishing crime in the colony. This is what the Wellington Times of yesterday says ou the subject :— lt would be interesting to know on what principle Supreme Court jaries in Weiliugton act. Again aud again the public have beeu shocked by the find iugs of the ■' good men and true." It in «aid there exi«t« a means whereby the opinions of large numbers of possible j jurymen jsay *><? discovered, aad tb&t

tbe challenging proceeds on the lines of knowledge thus obtained. Whether there is any real ground for such a statement it in not for us to say ; bat the fact remains that the statement is broadly made, and instances innunier-. able are furnished of the most respectable townsmen being challenged time after tim*. Whatever the causei that may be aaid to be operating, ctrtain it ie that tbe jnry system in Wellington has broken down, and it would perhaps be well to observe some circumspection as to the making known of names intended for the panels. Cases como before tho Court the chain of evidence in which may be said to be complete and yet the juries acquit the accused without hesitation. If criminality is to be encouraged in this way, then all respect for life and property will speedily vanish, and tbe evil may continue until presently the law-abiding citizen will be compelled to act in bis own de fence without seeking a protection that the law no longer vouchsafes. There is no necessity to cite here the cases in which every sense of justice and right have keen pitched to the winds by Wei lington jurymen — the instances are notorious.