THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 1872.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1143, 27 March 1872, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 1872.

The remarks usually made by Mr Justice Richmond on the occasion of opening a criminal session have always been looked forward to by thinking men as expressions of judicial opinion appropriate to the present condition of the Colony, the speaker, as has hitherto been his custom, throwing out some valuable suggestions for future guidance. The opening of the recent Circuit Court in Hokitika was expected to be one of these occasions for special remark, but his Honor contented himself with very little talking, although one sentence he uttered was suggestive enough, and (as before remarking upon it, we have waited until the session has closed) one which has bo^ie its fruit. He said that in at least one case the propriety of committal appeared to him to be questionable. With truth the Judge could have made, the same remark regarding

dozens of cases which have previously come before him in Westland, and it has often been wondered at that, on this subject, he kept silence so long. At the same time, the Grand J ury he addressed appears to have been over anxious to give effect to the hint thus conveyed, and has, consequently, gone to the opposite extreme.- Out of fourteen bills presented for its consideration, the Grand Jury ignored seven, which is truly a very alarming proportion. If the Grand Jury is right, then every second committal which takes place in the Resident Magistrates' Courts of Westland is wrongly made, either upon the ground of want of evidence, or that the person accused is entirely innocent. The bare possibility of such a state of things is enough to make any decent citizen tremble, because there is no limit to its expansion, and places +be whole community in danger. It has been argued, and we admit with some bliow of truth, that here there has been an over abundant display of anxiety on many occasions by Magistrates to commit, but if this anxiety has been shown on one side, we have no hesitation in saying that, on the #her side, the Hokitika Grand Jury ia equally guilty by its over-rashness in throwing out the bills which were recently submitted to it. If there is one thing more than another in which extremes ought to be avoided, it is in the dispensation of justice, and those who are honored by a call from their country to form a portion of the Grand Jury ought to be able to ignore all paltry local or party feelings, and discharge the duty required of them in au upright, honest, and fearless manner. This, speaking by results, it appears to be impossible to obtain in Hokitika, as well as in many other portions of the Colony. Glaring examples have occurred previously, but none so positively glarin j as that which took place last week, when seven bills of indictment out of fourteen were thrown out by the Grand Jury. The question naturally suggests itself, Of what practical benefit is this Grand Jury? and why should any body of men so constituted have the power tp say whether a man shall or shall not be placed upon his trial before a jury of his countrymen even after he has been committed by a Magistrate, who is supposed not to send a case for trial until there is Kprimafacic case made out against the prisoner ? And yet, in spite of all the evidence that may be adduced before a Magistrate, in spite of all that lawyers are so fond of characterising as "the surrounding circumstances," the Grand Jury can quietly ignore everything and discharge the bills. We have no wish minutely to refer to the cases which were in this manner aban'oned by the Grand Jnry which lately sat m Hokitika, because we are not arguing for particular cases, but for the principle at large, but still we must say that where there is a possibility of a prisoner taken red-handed in the act of burglary being

discharged by the Grand Jury without" trial, there must be something radically wrong either in the constitution of our jury system or of our society generally ; and the sooner it is rectified the better. We believe that the Grand Jury system is wrong in principle, and is capable of great abuses. It is quite sufficient that what is called a Petty Jury — but what in reality is The Jury — should s and between a man and the law. We believe that a modification of the present jury system in New Zealand will speedily take place, if not after the old. Scotch sytem, at least after that which now prevails in Victoria.