West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 18, 1867.

West Coast Times, Issue 619, 18 September 1867, Page 2

West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 18, 1867.

In charging the Grand Jury at the opening of the present Ciiminal Sessions of the Supreme Court, Mr Justice Richmond had a comparatively easy duty to perform. The calendar is happily much lighter than usual, and the most sei*ous case — that of manslaughter by Griffith Jones — was, as was evident from the depositions, attended by circumstances of an extenuating character, that reduced it far below the standard of offences usually classed under that designation. His Honor made a passing allusion to this case, but did not deem it of sufficient importance to dwell upon it at any length, reserving his comments upon the law as affecting homicide until his summing up on the trial. The only subject to which Mr Richmond pointedly called the attention of the Grand Jury was the present objectionable mode of preparing Crown prosecutions.

The brevity of this charge and the paucity of the topics referred to in it, we accept as evidence not only of the gratifying lightness of the criminal calendar, but as proof of the cessation of many of the causes of complaint as to the mode of administering justice in this district, which have hitherto formed necessary topics for the Judge of Assize to refer to. Many of the complaints Avhich filled the past presentments of Grand Juries have ceased to have any foundation. Great improvements have taken place in our prison arrangements '■and discipline. But a few months back our columns were filled with appeals from the " log-huts" which constituted Her Majesty's Gaol in Hokitika, and in which debtors and felons, convicts and persons presumably [innocent, were huddled together without regard either to health or decency, and under conditions almost rivalling those of the Black Hole of Calcutta. To so great a height had this abomination reached, that at one time serious intentions were entertained of pulling down these miserable structures and setting their inmates free, as a measure of humanity. Mr Justice Gresson, on the occasion of one of his judicial visits, spoke in terms of indignation and horror of the conditions under which prisoners were confined, and read a medical report on the subject, which he had deemed it necessary to obtain. We are happy to say that all this is passed; aud that Hokitikahasnowagaoltolerably well adapted for its vises, in the internal arrangements. of which many important improvements have been made since it was first opened for the reception of prisoners. One of the gravest complaints which the Grand Jury has hitherto had occasion to make to the Judge, has had reference to the insufficiency of the judicial arrangements. Without a District Court, and with only half-yearly sittings of the Supreme Court, abuses in the administration of criminal law were inevitable. Long terms of imprisonment before trial — in man}' instances when the accused person was ultimately acquitted of tho offence charged against him — made so-called justice a mockery. We have now both a District Court established, with a Resident Judge, aud sittings of the Supreme Court three times fa year. All the demands of the district in connection with these matters, have thus been complied with ; and the Judge has no longer occasion to refer to them. Unless, therefore, something of a very special character arises out of the Calendar itself, the Judge has much fewer topics than formerly upon which to descaut in his Charge to the Grand Jury. * In the present instance, His Honor has confined himself to some comments oif the mode in which Crown prosecutions aro conducted. Disclaiming any intention to make personal charges, he condemned the system as radically wrong and defective, and as calculated to cause justice to miscarry. No doubt it is a serious defect in the whole system, that the responsibility of prepariug a case for the Court, is divided in unascertained proportionsainongst the police, the- committing magistrates, and thel^jrowir- prosecutor. We hardly understand, however, the exact nature of the remedy which His Honor would propose. The action of the police in gathering the data upon which every accusation must rest, is necessary in the first instance. The intervention of the committing magistrate is necessary before any case can be sent for trial. Aud it is upon the depositions taken before the magistrate that the Crown Prosecutor frames his indictment. Except as having witnesses in charge, to be produced in Court when required, we apprehend the police have no connection with the prosecution after the enquiry before the Magistrate is concluded. Nor ha|, or ought the Magistrate to have, any thing to do with the case after his wai-rant of committal has been signed. His Honor said, " Often the Crown Prosecutor came into Court, apparently knowing very little more about it than the Judge himself may know from a persual of the depositions." And in another place his Honor says, " it is to be lamented that the conduct of public prosecutions is not from first to last placed in professional hands, so that a thorough sifting of the evidence might take place before the case came into Court." We can ouly understand his Honor to suggest cither that the Crown Prosecutor should habitually attend in every Resident Magistrate's Court to conduct preliminary charges, and that having secured a committal he should work the case up against the prisoner during the interval between the committal and the trial;

or that he should assume the functions of a private Judge. As it is, the Crown Prosecutor is supposed to have all the depositions before him and upon them to frame his indictment. The committing Magistrate it is presumed is to take the evidence on the preliminary examination, and to cause the depositions to be recorded in due form. If the Magistrate cannot do that he is unfit for his position ; If the Crown Prosecutor cannot in the face of these depositions frame a proper indictment he is unfit for his.

His Honor, however, predicts that under the present system the time will come when the publio will be startled by some great failure of justice ; and speaks pointedly of several cases included in the present calendar,, " requiring considerable address on the part of the prosecution on account of the difficulties of proof." It is c . ident that His Honor has not delivered his mind fully. He is apprehensive of grave consequences, the probability of which is not patent to the public. He sees defects in the system which his words do not sufficiently indicate. We hope that in making their presentment the Grand Jury will refer to this important topic in terms which will elicit from his Honor a fuller explanation of his views on a subject of very great importance.

A meeting of tho Council of the Separation League was held last evening. It was determined to convene a special meeting as soon as information was received from Wellington of tho reception of the petitions.

Two cases were disposed of yesterday, at the criminal sittings of the Westland Circuit Court, viz., that of Griffith Jones, who was convicted of tho manslaughter of John Smith, but strongly recommended to mercy, and who was remanded for sentence, and William Godwin, who was found guilty of perjury, and sentenced to twelvemonth's imprisonment with hard labor. The criminal sittings will be resumed this morning at ten o'clock, with the trial of Arthur Tanner, for embezzling the monies of the Hokitika Municipal Corporation.

There is only one case at present set down for trial at the nisi prius sittings of tho Westland Circuit, to be held in Hokitika on the 26th in3t., viz., .Edgar v. The Kokitikct, and Kanieri Company (Limited) . Mr Button for plaintiffs ; Mr Harvey for defendants.

At an emergency meeting of the Pacific Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons held last evening, four brethren were raised to the sublime degree of Master Masons.

When will the Inspector of Nuisances pay Weld street a visit to report upon the stagnant pools of green and putrid water that line one sido of this much used thoroughfare from Tancred to Sewell street ? The stench arising from them is absolutely overpowering, and will surely create some deadly disease if not abated by filling up the hollows in which the water has collected. As this is a question of public health, we think that the Town Council should at once take action in tho matter.

A tea-meeting of members of the Wesleyan Church and their friends was held in the church last evening. Wo shall give a report of tho proceedings to-morrow.

Not being aware of the establishment of a digging community upon the righthand branch of the Kaineri River, we were somewhat astonished the other day to hear that between seventy and eighty diggers were at work in that locality. Their operations are mainly confined to tho terraces that rise directly from the creek sides, the creek bed having been partially worked eighteen months ago, and we hear that the although poor in the general acceptation of the term, the ground being submitted to the sluicing process pays respectable wage 3 ; the better claims yielding from L 6 to L 7 per man weekly, whilst half that amount is to be obtained from almost any part of the -workings in hand. A very largo area of country about the head waters, of the I^ahiori bears those features that aro considered by the miner as indicating the presence of gold and wherever the ground has been tried in greater or lesser quantities has been diecovered. The country is, however, rugged and difficult to traverse, which combined with the inconvenience and exhaustive labour attacked to tho carrying of provisions from Kauieri town (the nearest depot of stores) very much retards the development of what we verily believe will some day bo proved a rich an extensive goldfiold. The diggers on the right-hand branch bitterly complain of the loss of time, and oven danger, they incur in fetching stores from Kanieri,as they are obliged to cross the river, which is deep and rapid, and bridged only by a log, that affords vory insecuro footiug to a man carrying a heavy burden. No later than last Sunday week, a miner escaped death by tho merest chanco though falling off the log. He was returning to his mates with nearly a hundred-weight of provisions strapped to his shoulders, and happening to make a false step, fell headlong into tho stream, and was carried nearly a quarter of a mile by the current before he succeeded in scrambling on shore — minus the provisions. Ho would scarcely have been saved but for the assistance of some diggers who by chanco wove passing at the time, and witnessing the occuronce, followed the man down the stream, and helped him to land. He was vory much exhausted and bruised, and since then has been prostrated by sickness, from which his recovery is anything but assured, his nervous system havingrcceived a very severe shock. Ar-. much to .preserve life, as to promote the development of a valuable track of country, the erection of a bridge across the Kanieri is imperatively demanded, and we hope the Government will see to it.

A very handsome nugget of gold, weighing between thirteen ounces and fourteen ounces was brought into town yesterday by two diggers. " It is reported to have been found at tho Lamplough diggings, but that statement we consider is open to doubt, the Lamplough gold being a very fine sample. It is seldom that diggers reveal the true finding place of such a treasure, so soon after its discovery.

Onoofthe most shockingly deliberate cases of stabbing that over occurred in the district, threw • tho inhabitants of Piper's Flat (Waimea), into a state of immense excitement on Monday night, and so enraged the miners, that they were with difficulty rostrained from dealing with the culprit a la Judge Lynch. Wo shall merely give tho facts of the case ns communicated to us by a gentleman who arrived in town from Waimea

yesterday. Amongst the buildings which are comprised in the little township of Piper's Mat, is a large hotel and dance house, which is much patronised by the miners, who nightly throng the room to indulge in a pastime they have ever delighted in. Amongst the company was an old man, who having selected the youngest girl in tho room for a partner, was ".chaffed" by some of tHb onlookers, one of whom — a stalwart young Irishman, named Patriot Galvin, was rather pointed in his remarks. These so enraged the other that ho ceased dancing, and challenged Galvin out to fight with, either knives or pistols, but being met with a laughing refusal, he rushed from the room, was seen to sharpen his knife upon a grindstone outside, and then returned and made a deadly attack upon poor Galvin, who being taken unawares received two frightful stabs, one in the left thigh, two inches below the groin, another under the left ribs. A rush was immediately made by the bystanders to prevent further mischief aud secure the would be assassin who desperately resisted, striking right and left with his knife, and in the melee wounded one man in the hand, and cut the trousers of another across, missing his thigh by the merest chanco. He was at last disarmed and bound, and the mob being frightfully excited, were proceeding to extreme measures, his immediate execution being loudly advocated, when the police opportunely arrived, and by dint of persuasion induced the diggers to let the law take its course. Meantime, the wounded man had been removed to his tent, where his hurts were roughly dressed. Yesterday morning, he was brought into town, and conveyed to the Hospital. We have not heard Dr. Ryley's opinion upon his condition, but understand that the wound in the thigh is four or five inches deep, and hoi'ribly jagged, as if the knife had been worked round and round in it. The side wound is less dangerous in appearance, but we fear more so in reality, as it is feared that the stomach is penetrated, and that the hemorrhage was internal. Up to a late hour last night the old man had not arrived in town, and we were therefore unable to.ascertain his name. It is believed that his removal from the Police Camp, Stafford Town, will be quietly effected at an early hour this morning.

We are happy to hoar that the Victorian Co-operative Company, at the Kauieri, lifted nearly one pound weight of gold out of the sluice-boxes on Saturday ; that amount being the proceeds of one weeks sluicing, nothing but headings and mullock having been run through. Tins return — although small — more than covers the working expenses of the claim, so that shareholders will afc least be spared further calls, aud are justified in looking forward to a dividend, at no distant date. The company's arrangements are very perfect, their plant, &c., being most extensive, valuable, and substantially erected. Two large engines work the pump and drive the winding gear, the dirt being lifted in trucks up an inclined plane from the bottom of the cutting, to the brace, and then emptied into a large and ingeniously contrived receptacle that feeds the sluice boxes. This feeder has an open bottom of iron bars, which only permits the smaller stonos and rubble to pass through, and as it is fixed at a steep gradient, the larger stones run off, and are raked into a truck placed beneath tho feeder's mouth, and thus by a simple and easy process the laborious work of forking is superseded. When loaded, the truck is run along a tramway that extends two-thirds across the Kanieri river, and .there emptied ; and the stream, being bo obstructed on one side by the accumulation of stones, is forced over to the other, where the tailings from the sluice boxes are deposited, and its power being increased because confined is sufficient to keep the takings clear, and so the lab our of at least two men is saved. A large tank of several thousand gallons capacity has been built upon a level with tho race, and supplies the sluice-boxes with a constant and steady flow of water. It is fed by the pump We must certainly congratulate Mr Watts, the Company's manager, upon the excellence of his arrangements, and hope that the undertaking will prove both remunerative and lasting.

From an official return it appears that the traffic of the Government railways in Victoria is snaring the general decline of trade. The total revenue during the week ending on the 29th ulfc. was L 9164 11s 9, as against L 10.4,68 2s 8d hi the corresponding week of last year. The aggregate for the year to date is £340,933 8s Bd, as against L 364.488 9s 3d, and the weekly average is only L 9883 17s 4d, as against L 10564 17s 7d for tho same period of 1866. The number of miles open in the two periods was the same. The rovonue of the Murray line for the week was L 5525 2s 4d 5 of the Ballarat lino, L 2866 8s lid ; and of the Willianistowfl line, L 773 Os 6d. The items of tho income of the last-named line are worth quoting : — Passengers, L 196 12s lOd ; parcels, L 2 17s 9d ; horses, carriages, and dogs, 4s ; goods and minerals, L 572 5s lid ; and cattle, LI.