Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, JUNE 2, 1892. Juries.

Manawatu Herald, 2 June 1892, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, JUNE 2, 1892. Juries.

The Government propose to introduce legislation to abolish both grand and special juries, We hold entirely with the idea of abolishing grand juries as the day is past when their services are of any value and they frequently make some strange blunders. How can it be otherwise ? Witness the last grand jury at Wellington ; they sat a day and found true bills or no bill in all the cases set down for hearing, yet we know that in one case under their consideration it took the Justices two days to arrive at a committal ( Though they agreed to the finding of the Committing Mftgiitr&tei in

most cases, yefc in other instances they did nofc. By the amount of business they transacted in the day can it reasonably be assumed that they were able to give the time and attention to the cases in which they found no bill, as the committing magistrates did ? Are they any better qualified than the committing magistrates to arrive at a just conclusion ? if not, then of wh* f " are they? L<^ 1V -— wse "-■■ — cuem go, we urge, -uu thus release men of better standing to improve the common juries. Special juries we trust may yet be retained, as in theße cases a bettel* remuneration is provided ■, and they are able to deal with questions which would be unintelligible to a common jury. -There are case where the services of ft special jury, upon technical points, are of much value to the presiding judge. Without meaning any disrespect to the number of useful citizens who have to take their turn in acting on Coroner's juries, we say that the law compelling their attendance is unnecessary and the jurymen are most out of place of any of the different juries empanelled. The Coroner's duty is merely to enquire, he takes no step on his own account, of course he can, but it is very rarely he does, as whatever the finding of the jury, the police can take any step they may think necessary. In the extreme case of a jury finding a charge of murder against some person, the Coroner would naturally direct his arrest, but if he did not it would be done, by the police. In any case the offender, whether arrested at the instance of the Coronsr or Police, would have to be brought before the magistrates and placed upon his perliminary trial before committal. The necessity of compelling four or six men to sit through a Coroner's inquiry without fee or reward for what they can possibly assist in the matter appears to be the most useless waste of time ; and the abolishment of such juries would be hailed as a relief by all settlers..