PRESS-GANG AT WORK.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4502, 11 December 1922, Page 3

PRESS-GANG AT WORK.

• EMERGENCY JURYMEN SELECTED. A HAMILTON SENSATION. An extraordinary rare occurrence — one that has happened but very seldom in the. Dominion, and certainly never before in the history of Hamilton—took place at the local sitting of the Supreme Court yesterday after? noon (says Thursday’s Waikato Times),, when, owing to there being two juries-out and to thdre being a considerable number of challenges for a third jury to act An a case wit'.l which.it was desired to proceed immediately, the number of jurymen supeonaed fpr the week’s work and in attendance was inadequate for a full panel to be drawn from them. Seeing this state of affairs, His Honour, Mr Justice Herdman, directed the attendant constables to lock the court door and select a sufficient number ol jurymen from the curious public who are usually to be found in the well of the court. The dramatic turn ’f events which was to convert them from usual Onlookers to very live participants in the fate of the prisoner was, on the whole, accepted by the emergency jurymen with a very good grace, although one of them became a little anxious concerning his lorry which he had left outside when stopping to call in at Jhe court for a few minutes’ spell. His fears’, however, were relieved by His Honour instructing a constable to attend to the matter. Tb_e unusual happening occasioned no little'excitement-in the vicinity of the court, and was generally regarded as welcome relief to the usual routine.