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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5003, 6 April 1877, Page 2

lir a former issue' we advetteii -io the lightness of the calendar of prisoners for trial at the,present,,fittings of the Well-' lihgton Circuit Court, and drew from tht* fact favorable inferences.. as r to the coni' dition of the people. In connection with this' Court, however, there are matters of detail which are not altogether satisfactory. The imperfect manner, in iwhich. cases for th| prosecution . were prepared was sucll as we venture to say was not calculated to uphold the dignity and majesty of the

Law in the eyes of the 'spectators of the proceedings, or' the readers of the published reports as they appear in the daily newspapers. In cases which rested upon documents, these-. documents were not man was placed in the box to swear that a document had been lost, and could not possibly be found (in order to let in secondary evidence, we presume), when just at that moment the Inspector of Police produced the paper required and saved a very awkward contretemps. In other cases important witnesses were not in attendance, and it appeared doubtful whether they had been subpoenaed properly or not. As to one prisoner his offence was the forging and uttering a promissory note. The indictment in this case was a long rigmarole charging the accused, in ever so many different counts, with forging and uttering a cheque, order, authority, and so forth; but there was no mention whatever of a promissory note from beginning to end. Upon this, the prisoner’s counsel, Mr. Allan, pf course raised a preliminary objection to the indictment, and after some argument as to whether the indictment could he amended or not, the, Crown Prosecutor ! said he should call no evidence in the.case, but would prefer another. bill before the Grand Jury. There can be no doubt that there has been a narrow escape of the miscarriage of -justice in more than one case.' Public tiirip/ has been wasted, and the Grand Juty have been prevented from being discharged: r, on the first day of the sitting in Consequence of very great carelessness. The 'learned Judge evidently felt this to be the case, and commented upon it. There is another matter in connection with'the practice of this Court, to which the 5 Judge, as we think, very properly called attention. One of the Wellington solicitors,’ who was called as a witness, stood up at the table to be sworn instead' of going into the box, and his Honor expressed his disapproval of the custom pf making any difference between man and man on such an occasion. What- took place will f be :: found in our repprt of the ..proceedings,! and we think all ; will agree that it is only Tight and. proper that all witnesses should be treated, alike. In: the’celebrated’ MordAunt) divorce case the Prince' of .Wales was put into the witness-box, and Lord Penzance said no man heed be ashamed to a witness-box in the cause ,of justice. The custom’'Which appears to have been [allowed here,.will, we-think,. in future: be better observed in the .breach than in the. observance.’ ;If may (not; be .an all-im-portant matter, but it is one not altogether trivial. Everything that tends to make people think that justice is administered in one way to the rich and another to the poor, should' be done away with, and this’ is just one of, those things in which invidious comparisons may be drawn, There is nowhere in the world probably a more loyal and law-abiding population to Jbe found than in these colonies,; and nothing 1 which tenda to upholdi.the dignity of our Supreme Court should he-neglected. The. learried Judg’e who presides during the present sittings is''respected throughout the'colonyfaudhy-’bdth the and the public generally is regarded as one of the ablest arid most upright men upon .the bench. That all the proceedings in his Court should be conducted Jin a manner befitting the tribunal over which he so well . presides, cannot be deemed a matter ( o£j rip Importance.