THE OPUNAKE CASE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 4 October 1907, Page 2

THE OPUNAKE CASE.

PIIESS COMMENT ON THE GRAND JURY. From tlie Wellington Post: —"'The finding of the Grand Jury caused considerable surprise in town,' states a Press Association message from New Plymouth, referring to the jury's action in 'returning no true bill' against the persons concerned in the tarring and .feathering episode at Opunafce. This surprise will be shared at Wellington and other places. His Honor Mr. Justice Denniston, who must be given credit for an unbiassed mind, was strongly of opinion that a prima facie case had been made out. It was clearly the duty of the jury to find a true bill, he submitted. However, the laymen thought they knew more about these matters than the Judge did. He was satisfied that the evidence already available called for a trial, but a majority of the jurors decided that the 'unsatisfactory nature' of the testimony was sufficient justification for saving the indicted persons from a trial by their peers. This verdict, in the face of the Judge's clear ' array of the facts, must strike the public as extraordinary. The incident was of such a character that a trial was necessary in justice to all. His Honor spoke scathingly about the undesirabieness of 'riotous assemblages' on the American model, and it was Surely reasonable to expect that men who, it is alleged, took the law into their own hands, should be asked to defend their conduct in a fair field, with no favour. If the matter rests at the point at which the Grand Jury dropped it, the people throughout the country will riot feel that Judge Lynch has been sufficiently judged."