South Canterbury Times. THURSDAY, JUNE 17, 1880.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2262, 17 June 1880, Page 2

South Canterbury Times. THURSDAY, JUNE 17, 1880.

The ' presentment of the Grand Jury at Invercargill, urging that the Supreme Court sessions should be held quarterly instead of half-yearly, deals with a grievance that has long been felt in a large number of populous centres. The visits of their Honors are a source of refined cruelty worthy of an age of barbarism, but cez-tainly not in accordance •with the supposed civilisation of the nineteenth century. If the best method of torturing, harassing, and inconveniencing all who come within the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court had been made a special study, a better system than the one that prevails could hardly have been devised. The Grand Jury at Invercargill illustrated this pretty forcibly by acquitting, without the formality of a trial, an accused person who had been imprisoned for a period of six months awaiting trial. This case, unfortunately, is by no means an exceptional one. If illustrations of the kind were necessary to lead to an alteration of a system that is simply revolting, they could be furnished by the score from Tiraaru and other localities all over New Zealand, where equally long intervals between the criminal sessions are allowed to elapse. Men, women, and children, suspected of crime’ but who, on their trial, are adjudged innocent, are frequently incarcerated for

periods of four, five, and six months awaiting, • in, mental agony, the machinery ;of justice. This is a condition of things that is manifestly the reverse of creditable. It savours strongly of inhumanity —of an utter disregard of the feelings of the unfortunate. It inllicts an irremediable wrong on the guiltless, and it blunts the weapons directed against crime. The most eminent authorities on the subject have expressed the opinion that punishment to be useful must follow swiftly the perpetration of crime. Under the system that prevails in New Zealand, punishment is slow and uncertain. The spectacle of gaols thronged for months with men and women awaiting the advent of their Honors in order to be tried, is something revolting. Halfyearly sittings of the Supreme Court are worse than no sittings at all. Not only arc they a source of cruelty and inconvenience but they cannot be defended on the score of economy. The maintenance of persons committed for trial is a serious item. If the circuits allotted to their Honors are too extensive they ought evidently to be reduced, or else the number of Supreme Court Judges should be increased. The adoption of this last suggestion may, at the first glance, seem unwise at a time when 2’etrenchment is demanded, but if tbc circumstances were fully enquired into, it would be found, we think, that the saving in connection with the maintenance of prisoners would go far to compensate the additional outlay. If such a step is not advisable, or if their Honors are so oppressed with work that quarterly sessions in such places as Timaru and Invercargill arc impracticable, then it would be much better that the* District Court Judges should have an extended jurisdiction, leaving the Supremo Courts to perform the functions of Courts of Appeal, or else that prisoners and civil cases now dealt with by the Supreme Court judges, should be remanded to Christchurch and Dunedin, where sittings are frequently held. One thing is perfectly obvious—that the movements of our superior Courts are too slow and two cumbrous to be useful. We trust the spur that has just been applied by the Grand Jury at Invercargill will bo applied by Grand Juries, in districts that are similarly situated. It is onty combined and simultaneous action that the promptings of Grand Juries, so often slighted and forgotten, arc likely to have any effect, and the gentlemen composing these tribunals will merit the thanks of the community, should their united representations lead to the removal of the grave scandals which half-yearly tribunals create.