SUPREME COURT OPENS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 888, 4 February 1930, Page 11

SUPREME COURT OPENS

AVERAGE NUMBER OF CASES FOR TRIAL JUDGE’S CHARGE TO JURY “There are 22 cases for trial this session. That is an average number for Auckland, so 1 need make no special comment in that direction, but there are a few charges of a most serious nature, including one of murder and abortion, two of negligent driving causing death, one of bigamy, and several which may be described as being sexual in nature.” In these terms Mr. Justice Smith opened his charge to the grand jury at the opening of the Supreme Court session this morning* The grand jury consisted of the following:—Messrs. John Hellaby, Hubert Earle Vaile, Thomas Dane Allen, Russell Howard Bartley, Ellon Bond, lvo Barret Esam, Robert Stanley Thompson, Ernest William Brose, John Carlaw, Thomas Glendening, James Park, Thomas Pardington, Horace Paykel. Harry Oakley, William Nagle, William James Lapdell, John Hislop, Herbert Savage, William Victor Robertson and Leslie William Rainger. His Honour said that in the murder and abortion case the accused was a woman. She had been charged with unlawful]}' using an instrument on another woman who had died a month after the operation. Expert evidence was forthcoming to prove that the death was due to septic conditions following the operation. His Honour did not feel that the jury would have any difficulty in arriving at the conclusion that a prima facie case had been made out. He thought that there would also he no difficulty in finding that the Crown had proved its case, and on the abortion charge a true bill would be rereturned. It could be either murder or manslaughter. NEGLIGENT DRIVING Concerning the two charges of negligent driving causing death, ’this was a serious offence aud the highways should be protected against such pdbpie. One case concerned a man who drove a lorry to a quarry with a party of other men. It appeared that much beer had been consumed there among them, and when the accused started to leave on the homeward journey he was apparently under the influence of liquor. During' the journey the lorry ran into a water-table, hit a heap of earth and then swerved to strike a telegraph pole. In the smash one of the men was killed. Judging by the damage done to the lorry it was travelling at a great speed. In the second case of this nature the accused was quite sober. Pie was driving home one evening when visibility was not good, and passed a stationary tram at a high rate of speed. In doing so he struck a woman who was badly injured and who died shortly afterward. There was a. case of bigamy and one of making a false declaration to the registrar. Iu a case of incest, the accused was a Maori. There had been illegal relationship between father and daughter. It did appear, however, that the family generally was fairly loose in its morals but that, of course, in itself, was not an offence. ABHORRENT IN NATURE “Then there are a certain number of cases of a most abhorrent nature all of which concern children,” continued his Honour. “There is one case of ail assault on a girl six years of age. Such cases are terrible, and they must mean much pain to you to hear of them, just as it is to me to inform you of them. It is indeed a relief to change over to another type of charge.” There were charges of breaking and entering and theft, while there was one of theft and false pretences, in which the accused represented himself as being the authorised agent of a life insurance company. By that means he had collected a sum of money.