SUPREME COURT. CRIMINAL SITTINGS. March 1st, 1850, BEFORE MR. JUSTICE CHAPMAN.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 478, 2 March 1850, Page 2

SUPREME COURT. CRIMINAL SITTINGS. March Ist, 1850, BEFORE MR. JUSTICE CHAPMAN.

The Court was opened for the trial of prisoners with the usual formalities. His Honor in bis observations to the Grand Jury said, tbat dt the commencement of a Dew year he woald according to custom notice the stale of crime for the past year. In the five years ending 1848, 105 cases had been brought for trial before the Supreme Court making an average of 21 cases a-year ; of these 30 were cases tried in 1844, 28 cases in 1845, 24 cases in 1846, 9 cases in 1847 and 14 cases in 1848, shewing a sensible diminution in the last two years. In 1849, 28 cases had been brought before the Supreme Court, shewing an increase on the previous years. Of these, 19 persons had beeD convicted and nine bad been acquitted, Some of the offences were of a trifling nature, one for a nuisance involved no moral turpitude, it was for a house built on a spot which was afterwards legally made a highway ; three were for an attempt to escape from prison, but when the melancholy state of the gaol since the earthquakes was considered and the temptation it offered to prisoners to escape, this might be regarded as a mild offence. Some of the crimes were however of a graver charicter. His Honor then made the following statement of the cases which had been tried by the Supreme Court during* f the *year 1849;—

His Honor observed that among the wholenumber tried during the past year, there were only four original settlers, and one of these (for a nuisance) as he had previously taken occasion to observe, was more for a legal than moral offence ; another for keeping a disorderly house was the'only woman who had been tried since he had the honor to sit on thebench. Without entering into a formal dissertation on education, he would remark that in proportion as the elements of instruction; were given to a community, in the same proportion does crime diminish, and that not only in the number but in the giavity of the offence, and this was proved not only by the stat sties of our own country but alsofrom those of continental nations; the character of the crimes varied also with the spread of education, as it would be found, as education extended, that the offenders resorted more to fraud than to force. In the statistics of Van Diemen's Land which, as a penal colony, might be regarded as a community of Englishmen in the lowest state of moral progress, during the last ten years, in which great efforts had been made and large sums expended in attempting to diffuse the benefits of education,' it was observable that the highest crimes have diminished in a marked degree. He thererore felt very desirous of impressing on all who might be placed in a position to forward these views the great importance ot education in diminishing crime in a community. There were six bills presented to the Grand Jury and eight prisoners to be tried. The Grand Jury ignored one of the bills (for Larceny) and found true bills against the other prisoners. The report of the trials will appear in our next number.

« r For Con- Actrial, -victed. quitted. Murder 2 1 1 Wounding with intent to Murder. 2 2 0 Robbery from Person 4 2 2 Highway Robbery 2 2 0 Bigamy 1 0 1 Burglary 4 0 4 Arson , 1 1 0> House breaking 1 1 0 Larceny 3 3 0 Assault on Constable 3 2 1 I'rison Breach 3 3 a Disorderly House 1 1 0 Nuisance 1 I 0 28 19