THE Inangahua Times. PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY. FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 1877.

Inangahua Times, Volume III, Issue 84, 2 March 1877, Page 2

THE Inangahua Times. PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY. FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 1877.

At a recent sitting of the District Court at Hokitika, Hi& Honor Jud^e Weston when addressing a late juror, let fall B.Pffle very pertinent remarks upon tbe duties and obligations of jurymen generally, but more particularly in regard to the grand jury system, as applied to the procedure of the Supreme Courts of this colony. His Honor said "It seemed to him that gentlemen of the Petty Jury scarcely realised the important duties cast upon them. The duties of Grand Jurors, men who were taken from the highest and best educated ranks, were, after all, of a formal character. They professed to travel hastily and, let us hope, correctly, over ground taken at the expense of much labor by tbe committing magistrate, but upon jurors called from tbe more' humble of our ' citizens, was cast the duty of helping | and taking part in the real business, of ' the Court, ia determining the guilt or i innocence of the accused, of checking l tbe career of criminals, and of pre- < serving . peace aod order in society's t midst. It might be that at no distant 1 period in New Zealand the grand jury J would exist only in the memory, and then it would happen,, possibly, that ] gentlemen of education, who now orna- , meot the higher Criminal Courts, would . be permitted to participate in the ( honor and privilege engaged by those , 'who now form tbe roll of petty jurors for the Supreme, .and iuferior tribunals." These are remarks, which every J i>ne having a knowledge of the working of grand juries will at once endorse. ( Fhafc the system is an anomalous and ( ivbolly unnecesnary, if indeed not an ' ibsolutely dangerous one, ther6 can- ] oot be much room to doubt, and why it has not long ago been discarded in ( ibis, as it has been in tbe * aeighboring colonies, is not easy ' to understand. The objections J to the system, however, do not ippear to be limited to its seeming ' superfluity, for it has another aspect < which also has a right to consideration. ' Qrand jurors are usually chosen from < ambogst the leading residents of a ' Bommunity. Their social position is ( taken as a certain guarantee— not at ' alf times an infallible one — of their | superior intelligence, and thus having discharged what in ninety-nine oat of , every hundred cases is a mere dry for , uiality, they are. exempted from the common jury list, and thus the whole, duty of tbe panrHs thrown upon the toilers of the community — men who can least afford to devote their time to the country.