THE JURY LISTS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5, 27 April 1914, Page 4

THE JURY LISTS.

“Good fame and character” is the principal qualification demanded of a juryman in New Zealand. According to the Juries Act the following persons are not qualified to serve on any jury : (a) Anyone who is not a natural horn or a naturalised subject of his Majesty. (b) Anyone who has been convicted of any infamous crime, or of treason, or of any crime formerly punishable as felony, unless he has received a free pardon, (c) Anyone who is an undischarged bankrupt, (d) Anyone who is of had fame or repute.; The formation of jury lists is left to the police, who in town and suburbs are expected to prepare a complete list of all persons qualified to serve. These lists are accessible to any inhabitant in the district for the purpose of ascertaining whether any names are there that should not be there, or any names missing that should be present. Subsequently a complete list is sent to the jury officer who calls a meeting of Justices to revise the list. The cause of the trouble in Auckland seems to he that the detectives went through the list after it had been finally prepared for the jury officer, with the result that the Justices found themselves faced with a large number of erasures not authorised by them. The trouble would have been avoided if the detectives had struck out the names before the complete list was framed and the Justices would then have been faced with a clean sheet. The Christchurch “Press” reminds us that it ha s been the practice for years for detectives to purge the list of persons not of “good fame and character.” Sometimes the charge of had character could not he definitely proved, and a fair amount of latitude has been left to the officers who are considered to he best fitted to judge a man’s reputation.