AIDING JURIES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9049, 7 February 1908, Page 4

AIDING JURIES.

It is strange that in these days when ,provision is made for the taking of shorthand notes of Court trials and the type-writing of evidence a Judge of the Supreme Court should consider an application from a jury io bj furnished with a copy of evidence "a novel request." This week, in Wellington, the first request of the kind was made, and evoked surprise and the remark quoted, from Mr Justice Chapman. He, however, failed to see why the request should not be granted, and granted it accordingly. If in important cases it was made | a rule to supply juries with typewritten depositions, there would be less occasion to complain at the failure of justice where juries are concerned. Evidence is now taken down by expert typists for the benefit of the Judges, and there is no reason why jurors who are sworn to decide upon the evidence should not also be supplied with copies, seeing that half a dozen "manifolds" can be taken as readily as the original copy. It is impossible for jurymen to remember all that the material points of a case in a long trial, and to the absence of records of evidence may be attributed a proportion of doubtful dismissals or convictions which from time to tine bring about a demand for the abolition of the jury system

Dr. McArthUr, S.M., Wellington, before giving a decision upon a case in which a man was charged with having filthy premises, visited the house and yard of the accused. found the place in a deplorable condition. The yard, states a city contemporary, was stacked high with fruit cases, the contents of many being in a state of decomposition. Among the cases several emaciated fowls were moving about. Inside the rooms were pikd high with discarded apparel, decaying vegetables, and rotten fruit. In one pile were about a hundred and fifty women's hats. A couple of drayloads of women's dresses were bundled up in insanitary heaps. Under the house were eight ancient sides of bacon and other trifles. Dr. McArthur hurried back to the Court and fined the defendant £5 —the maximum The Stipendiary Magistrate is to be commended for his action in visiting the'premises, to inform himself of the exact position of affairs, and in imposing the fullest penalty after he had done so. If his example were followed by other magistrates in cases of the kind there would soon be an end to the keeping of filthy premises to the detriment of ths health of the whole community.

Still another Government Department ia to be established. It is to control and regulate the Government's advertising which, it is said, has become so extensive that it has got beyond the bounds of the State Printing Office. We take it that this new department' will not add to the cares of whatever Minister is in charge of it, as it can well be managed by one of the experts in the printing office with a few clerks to assist. It would perhaps b3 better to denigi ale it a branch of the Government Printing Office rather than a State department. The tendency to call every new branch of business a Department hus its drawbacks because the term "department" often implies an importance greater than is warranted, and leads to ever-increasing expenditure upon an ever-inreasing staff. The advertising business could easily be efficiently managed without any ostentation or parade by a few capable officials.

The proposal of the Minister-in-Charge of Hospitals (the Hon. G. Fowlda) to procure a suitable site of hind in the North Island as a site for n central mental hospital, is one that will commend itself to the every tboughlul member of the community. The object is to deal with the mentally alllictcd by an improved method. The Minister says that if the Government were dealing with the subject anew ho would prefer separate colonies so that there could be better classification than was possible with all the patients in one building. That is what is most needed, and some system by which classification can be carried out will have to be adopted sooner or later if the best results are to be achieved. A central institution with ample land attached to it is meanwhile a step, but only a step, in the rig;ht direction.

Mr Andrew Collins has been in evidence again. At the sitting of the Conciliation Board, at Palmerston North, on Wednesday, the butterworkera' dispute was called on, but the employers objected to give evidence on account of Mr Collins being

present. The ground of objection was that that functionary was acting "in the dual capacity of agitator and judge." It was only kicking against the pricks, however, as the Board has power to give judgment by default. We, and many of our contemporaries, have pointed out on more than one occasion the impropriety of a member of the Board adjudicating upon disputes which he has encouraged; but Mr Collins is within his legal rights. It is time the law was amended in the direction of ending a position which is becoming intolerI able.