THE GLOBE. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1880. THE MYSTERIES OF CORONER'S LAW.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2115, 3 December 1880, Page 2

THE GLOBE. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1880. THE MYSTERIES OF CORONER'S LAW.

The terrible crime so wantonly committed at Opunake some days ago is still fresh upon people's minds. The particulars of the outrage, which have been disseminated by the wires to all parts of the colony, have naturally raised public indignation and given cause for much sorrow and sympathy. So far, it is hard to say what led the murderer to execute so diabolical a deed. Whether it were lust, greed of money, or a sudden impulse to " run a muck," the evidence alroady gathered fails to disclose. It is clear, however, that no political motives—from a Maori point of view, at all events—prompted the wretched Tuhi to commit the act: and under the somewhat uncertain state of affairs in the south-west part of the North Island, it is well that the public mind should feel assured that it is so.

jLeavingaside.however,the consideration of the subject matter of this terrible tragedy, it may not be out of place to review some of the proceedings which accompanied the capture of him whom we may fairly assume to be the real culprit, although he has not yet been

convicted of the offence. That Tuhi confessed his crime in the Coroner's Court, and in no equivocal terms, thus removing any serious doubt ag to the identity of the murderer, has been felt by all classes of the community, far and wide, to be a perfect relief. The honest English blood was boiling with indignation, and men's minds were keenly set in the matter of having sheeted home, as soon as possible, the terrible crime upon the guilty party. We are compelled to admit, however, that had not the Maori confessed to his having committed the deed, it is more than prebable that very great difficulties, lot alone much waste of money and of valuable time, would probably have resulted before the culprit was securely fixed within the executive meshes of the law. If we are to believe the elaborate reports of the proceedings of the Taranaki authorities concerned in this hideous affair, wo must deplore the las, incompetent, and incomplete state of officialism which evidently obtains in that portion of the colony. For lack of the very elementary knowledge of police duties and of the knowledge of the a b c of their offices, commend us indeed to the constabulary force of the Taranaki-Wan-ganui district, and especially to the Coroner who dealt with poor Miss Dobie's case. To begin with the police, we find from the evidence adduced in the Coroner's Court, that the arresting policeman, a sergeant in the force too, thought nothing of testifying that he had not searched Tuhi when he arrested him. "He took him several miles along, and at the several resting places Tuhi might havo dropped a knife or anything else ho might have had on him." And so it appears to have turned out that Tuhi did drop the very knife with which it is stated the foul crime was committed. Then again, further on, another sergeant of police states on oath, that while searching the body of the unfortunate young lady, " he looked into the pockets of her dress, but omitted to examine the pockets of her over-skirt." "What manner of police officers, it may be asked, are these sergeants of the local Force, and if so glaring a state of ignorance obtains among them, what must be the case with the half-tutored private constables ? We must now have a word to say in reference to the proceedings in the Coroner's Court. The Coroner, some medical man named Boor, appears to have regarded the man Stannard and the Maori Tuhi as prisoners brought up for judgment before him. At the conclusion of the evidence, we are told that the Coroner absolutely allowed the jury—and we suppose this was done, or shonld have been done, at his direction—to return the following " verdict" (?): —

"It is the unanimous opinion of the jury that there' is no evidence whatever against Stannard, and it is their wish that he should be at once released."

Considering that Coroners' Courts are Courts held to enquire preliminarily into the circumstances which may have attended what may he termed " illegal" deaths, with a view solely of pointing out where blame should be attached for these fatal occurrences, it may well be understood that this " discharging" a prisoner, prisoner of the police only, and whose attendance at the Coroner's Court is but as that of a spectator, is extraordinary. Furthermore, the Coroner, not content with "discharging" Stannard, assumed tne role of a judicial tribunal by actually congratulating the discharged one, and informing him, as would a Judge of the Supreme Court, that " he left the Court without any stain on his character!" But, now to the creme de la creme of these remarkable proceedings. Tuhi, also a prisoner before the Coroner evidently, suddenly spoke and said that "he did it; he had killed the woman." " Then," remarked the Coroner, turning to the jury, "I do not think that, under the circumstances, I can ask you to do anything, I can hardly ask you for anything further." The jurymen dispersed, no Terdiot was returned nor recorded, no Inquisition framed, and, stranger still, no warrant of committal or apprehension against " any person known or unknown" was made out! In fact, the Court broke up, without being either adjourned or securing the conclusions which, upon their oath, the jury had been called on to determine when gathered together for a specific purpose by the strong arm of the law. Whether the Colonial Secretary, to whom the technical result of every inquest must be forwarded, i.e., the Inqusition and the verdict, will be satisfied with this singular expose of "Crowner's Quest," is somewhat doubtful. Needless almost it is for us to say that there never was a clearer and easier case for either Coroner or his jury. Yet it seems that the whole thing ended in smoke. The police, singularly enough, allowed a Coroner to order them to discharge a prisoner then in their—not the Coroner's—custody, without bringing him for dismissal before a Magistrate's Court as the law imperatively directs, and the Coroner's Court evanesced without returning a verdict. This, of course, is but one of the many instances which have been brought before the public eye] of the rustic way in which Coroner's Courts are conducted. In Christchurch, we believe, people have often been driven to ask of one another what was the good, the practical usefulness, of this antiquated and almost obsolete institution. In cases of murder and of arson, the machinery of Coroner's Courts is a mere duplex of that of the Resident Magistrate's Court, playing second part to the latter, and in reality a useless appendage. Perhaps one of the main causes of the practical uselessness of these Courts, is the fact that, for traditional reasons merely, the office of Coroner has generally been given to medical men, men neither versed in the legal technicalities necessary to carry into effect the real requirements of the law under which these Courts were originally constituted, nor likely to endeavor to render themselves proficient in them. Then there are those interminable " doctor's quarrels" and professional jealousies, which, whenever the office of Coroner is held by one belonging to the cloth, crop up even within the official walls of the Court, and not unfrequently interfere, or are thought by the public at all events, to interfere, with the due execution of the duties of the office. In no place, probably, more than in Christchurch, where medici are in a continual and boiling state of redhot warfare, does this unfortunate state of things exist. Late ovents, whether brought to light in the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board or elsewhere, have abundantly proved it. It is a case of daggers drawn between two strongly represented sections of the medical community. We understand that our present Coroner, Dr. Coward, is retiring from the Civil Service in a few days, and that the Government will be called upon to appoint some one in his place. It is to be hoped, in these days of bitter

post mortem controversies, that the old fashioned custom of selecting a medical man for the post will bo departed from, as has been found necessary to do years past in Australia. For all practical and generally useful purposes, as well as in view of curtailing the public expenditure, we feel that the Government would act well, and in the public interests, in adding to the duties of the Resident Magistrates in the large towns those of Coroner. This is done in the country districts, and for many years past, the practice has been found to work effectively. Coroners should be thoroughly conversant with the laws of evidence and gifted with a general idea of general criminal law. And Resident Magistrates are supposed to possess a thorough knowledge of both.