SUPREME COURT SITTINGS, SPECIAL COMMISSION. Friday, 27th March, 1846. BEFORE MR. JUSTICE CHAPMAN.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume II, Issue 77, 28 March 1846, Page 2

SUPREME COURT SITTINGS, SPECIAL COMMISSION. Friday, 27th March, 1846. BEFORE MR. JUSTICE CHAPMAN.

Yesterday the Court was opened with the usual formalities under a special commission appointed to try the natives charged with being concerned in the robberies and outrages committed in the Hutt district on Sunday the Ist inst. Considerable interest was excited by these trials, and there were a number of settlers iv and about the Court House. A number of natives were also collected together in the space in front of it. The following gentlemen were sworn in of the Grand Jury:— Mr. C. Clifford, J.P., foreman ; Hon. H. W. Petre, J.P. ; Major Baker, Capts. Daniell, J. P., and Sharp, Messrs. G. Baker, K. Bethune, W. Fitzherbert, A. Hort, A. E. M'Donogh, J.P., A. M'Donald, T. M. Partridge, W. Swainson, J.P., and R. Stokes. His Honor, in his charge to the Grand Jury, stated that a commission had been issued J>y his "Excellency to try the natives who were alleged to have been concerned in the robberies and outrages which had taken place in the Hutt on Sunday, the Ist March, and that as it was usual on such occasions to deliver the gaol, two bills would also be presented to them for felonies committed by white persons in the town. He would repeat what he had on a previous occasion stated, and which could not be made public to too great an extent, that where the British sovereignty was established, and a portion of an English population lived in a country inhabited by an aboriginal population, the English law prevailed in all criminal matters arising out of questions between the two races._ The first bill which would be preferred against the two natives would be for a robbery committed in the house of a person of the name of Hughes, but there were several other indictments against them. He would remark, that the province of the Grand Jury was not so much to decide on the actual guilt of the prisoner as whether there was such an amount of evidence as_ would establish a prima facie charge, leaving it to the prisoner to make good his defence ; it would be sufficient if there was so much doubt as would justify the Judge in putting the case to the Jury. His Honor then briefly alluded to the other cases which were set down for trial. The Grand Jury then retired, and found true bills against all the prisoners, except E. O'Hara, and D. Townshend, for a burglary, and stealing a shilling from a native named Moses. After a patient and lengthened examination of the witnesses, in which the Rev. S. Ironside kindly offered his services as interpreter, there did not appear to be sufficient evidence to support the charge, and the bill was ignored. We must defer the report of the trials until next week.