SUPREME COURT.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 May 1916, Page 2

SUPREME COURT.

I - mm AUCKLAND CRIMINAL CASES. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Auekkmd, May 23. In his charge to the grand jury at the opening of the Supreme Court Mr. Justice Chapman expressed regret at the size of the calendar, 25 cases beinglisted. He failed to understand why there should be sufficient criminal cases to occupy the court for three weeks in Auckland when the sessions in other centres were disposed of in t'hrce days. The attraction of the warmer climate for undesirables, who would not live in a more bracing climate, probably had something to do with it. His Honor dealt at length with the charges against Rua and four of his followers, outlining the history leading up to their avrest. Rua had been guilty of seditious utterances in January, when lie said that the King of England was beaten, and when Germany won he (Rua) would he king here. When a man set up such pretensions and engaged about him a lot of idle people wflio might be disposed to be disorderly, and when such actions interfered with recruiting, it was absolutely necessary to take steps to prevent them. The grand jury must decide whether this amounted to sedition, lie concluded by 'briefly reviewing the encounter at Rna's pa.