SUPREME COURT.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 50, 1 March 1870, Page 2

SUPREME COURT.

Criminal Sittings. [Before his Honor Mr. Justice Richmond]. This Day. The criminal sittings of the Supreme Court were opened this morning by Mr. Justice Richmond. The following gentlemen were sworn in on the Grand Jury : — J. E. Hooper, J. T. Lowe. Wra. WUite, W. S. Mortimer, J. Watkins, J. P. Black, R. Disher, G. Harper, T, Ileuroul, W. H. Turner, J. W. Tntton, F. B. Harlfield, H. Buckeridge, J. Bentlev, G. Bonnington, S. PI. Pike, A. Bidde'll, F. H. Blundell, E. Everett, T. R. Hodder, J. M. Pierson J. Younger, W. M. Thomson, and N. Edwards (foreman). His Honor who spoke with considerable feeling, and who evidently, was struggling against the effects of recent illness, then proceeded to charge the Grand Jury as follows : — Mr Foreman and Gentlemen— There are but two cases set down for trial at this assize, the calendar being the lightest that I have known here. If I were at liberty to draw conclusions as to the state of the country from the small number of committals, I should certainly congratulate you on the advantages you enjoy in living in a part of the country where the law is highly respected, but from recent events I can hardly, take co flattering a view. Siuce last I met you a large body of citizens have by force resisted the Superintendent of .the province, acting as the representative of the Crown, in defence of a supposed, or it may be an actual, right, and to defend tins right, arms had been prepared but happily not made use of. I shall abstain from expressing any opinion on the points in dispute, but . shall Btrictly confine myself to unquestioned facts. It

must not be supposed that the actors in these proceedings are by any means justified in their actions because they do not happen to have come within the scope of the law. In the past it has often happened that resistance to authority has been a praiseworthy action, but such rarely happens in these times, and it must appear to you that it is ouly as a last resource, aud in tlici absence of every constitutional remedy that banded citizens should offer resistance to the law, and (hut such an act must be looked upon as most lamentable by everyone who knows what he owes to the sacred principles of social order. The opposition of these persons was clearly unnecessary. They ought to have known and remembered that their legal rights were assured to them by the law of the land ; if they wanted more than their rights their acts were those of pirates aud banditti. It is said in their defence that they considered they were in legal possession of the land, and it may be that they were so, but this by no means justified them in offering armed opposition to the survey ; such opposition was clearly illegal. If a man enters my paddock I am not first to point my gun at him, but to warn him off, aud if he does not take the warniug, the most I can do is to gently lay hauds upon him. In no case does the law give me the right to offer armed opposition. But, to my mind, it appears that, even if the men had taken up their land within the goldfields, it is by no means clear that such possession entitled them to exclude a Government surveyor. The miner's right conveys a very limited interest in the laud, of which the fee simple as you all of you know remains in the Crown. So long as his occupation is not interfered with, it appears to me that he is at full liberty to execute a survey for any purpose, and that no miner has any right to question it. Their act" was as illegal ;is it was unnecessary, and distinctly comes within the operation of the criminal law. Much may be said in extenuation of their conduct, but into this matter Ido not go at all. It is not for the purpose of considering the men that I refer to it; it is their act only at which I look. Ido not pretend in any way to ..estimate the moral guilt of those men or their abettors — I merely wish to stamp their act with a view to the future. Were I to enter into the question of palliation. I should also have to touch upon the conduct of the General and Provincial Governments matters which Ido not understand and do not pretend to judge. All I uow wish to do, without desiring to deny that there may have been, or were, extenuating circumstances, is to record my opinion of the actions of the party which has brought such a slur upon us. lam happy to think that the leaders of political opinion on both sides have condemned this act, and that no person in the public prints has ventured to defend it, but, as a Judge of the district, I should not feel that I had done my duty were T, so long as I had strength to utter a syllabic, to fail to put on record my opinion of these unseemly proceedings. As to the contest between the miners and the purchasers, I have nothing to say. It is easy for any one to look upon that with complete indifference, as a man on a cliff might view a fight going on below him, between a flock of kites and crows, but it is difficult to speak of the late proceedings at Wangapeka without doing so in language somewhat warm. I think I have touched on all those parts in the history which it was necessary for me 10 do. I should have been wanting -in ray duty had I not said so much ; in uttering a syllable more I might be going beyond that duty. Gen* tlemen, I now dismiss you to your duties. The Grand Jury having returned true bills in the two cases set down for hearing. Frederick George Allen was charged with forging and uttering a cheque on the Bank of New Zealand. Mr. H. Adams appeared for the prosecution. Prisoner was undefended. Albert John Palmer stated that prisoner came up to his father's public-house, at Waimea West, with two others, aud that after baiting the horses and having dinner, he tendered in payment a cheque for £7, purporting to be signed by one James Davidson. He gave him £6 9s, as change. He believed Allen said at the time that the cheque was signed by Davidson, of Wakapuaka. The remainder of the evidence was similar to that given in the Resident

Magistrate's Court. The Jury, after re* f tiring for a few minutes, returned a ver- j diet of Not Guilty. '■