NEW PLYMOUTH.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 4013, 8 November 1881, Page 2

NEW PLYMOUTH.

This day. The Supreme Court was opened by Judge Gilles, who, in addressing the grand jury said he would be wanting in his duty if he ignored the circumstances of the position in which large bodies of armed men were assembled on active service, and he took leave to remind them of the constitutional principles, that the employment of an armed force was only justifiable under the authority of Parliament in repelling an armed aggressor or in aid of the cute arm of the law, when that arm had proved powerless to enforce the law's mandates. In any other case the use of an armed force was illegal, and a menace to, if not an outrage on, the liberties of the people. He entertained an earnest hope that the events of the last few days would have the result of maintaining peace and the permanent establishment of order within the district. Thomas Campbell, for horse stealing was sentenced to 18 months. William Ealph Rose, for robbery, was sentenced to two yearsimprisonment. William Hopkinson, for larceny, was acquitted. No bill in Coyle v. Gibson. ■ Judge Gillies commented more than once on the apparent eagerness of the police to convict persons of crime ; their object should be to obtain justice, not convictions;