THE LATE CRIMINAL SESSION.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1145, 30 March 1872, Page 2

THE LATE CRIMINAL SESSION.

Hokitika, March 21. To His Honor Mr Justice Richmond. May it please Your Honor— We, the undersigned jurors summoned to attend tl\e sittings of the Supreme Court at Hokitika during this present week of the month of March, 1872, most respectfully assure you, not only for the credit of ourselves, but also for the credit of every nation and creed to which any of us may belong to or believe in, that we are undeserving of the stigma placed upon our characters by the Crown Prosecutor when he addressed your Honor yesterday relative to the challenging of so many jurors. Entertaining the highest respect for yourself, not only personally but also judicially as an administrator of justice, we beg to say, each answering for himself, that none of us have been corresponded with or spoken to by any person tried before your Honor during this sittiug of the Court, and in this remark wo include relatives and friends of all prisoners for trial. . We, therefore, request the* learned Crown Prosecutor to retract his aspersions upon our characters as jurymen, asserting as he did that he had high official authority for stating? that we were men who had been "influenced," and had thereby violated the sanctity of o,ur oaths as jurors. That tbe Crown Prosecutor was wrong in thus stigmatising us he must admit, as two juries found one prisoner guilty of two offences, and another for horse stabbing. Ifc is with a feeling of the high sense we entertain of your Honor's remarks as to country and creed, and your expressed disbelief that any jury would be tampered with,. that; we address this letter to you ; we simply wish to let the people of New Zealand know that men summoned as jurors in Westland will do their duty fearlessly and impartially — moreover, speaking for ourselves, none of us would violate our oatbs. With the assurance of our profound respect, We remain, Your Honor's most obedt. servants,. Frederick Dick George Cannon I Thomas Marr W.Thompson John Evans ' William Costello Henry Francis Charles Johnson Richard Beck J. W. Pollock Alexander Spence- George Cattle Thomas Burns C.Edwards Peter Zohrab Patrick Healey John C. O'Hagau Alex. Colquhoon On behalf of ourselves and our brother petty jurors.