ABORTION CASES

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20727, 10 February 1939, Page 7

ABORTION CASES

ATTITUDE OF JURIES STATEMENT BY JUDGE ADMINISTRATION OF LAW (Special to Times) AUCKLAND, Friday “From time to time, in quite a pub- 1 lie manner, criticism—adverse criticism from various quarters—is voiced as to the administration of the. law with regard to this particular class of offence,” said Mr Justice Callan in a statement on abortion cases in Ihe Supreme Court yesterday. “It has been suggested by various persons that this is a class of crime in which it is peculiarly difficult to obtain a conviction even when the evidence is very clear, that juries do sometimes evince a disinclination to do what everybody else, taking a dispassionate view, thinks is their duty. “I am not saying for one moment whether I associate myself one way or another with that criticism, but it would be idle for me in my position to pretend that I do not know of it and I can see that it is my duty to refer to it in case the convictions of those who make this criticism should be in any respect well founded. Improper Advantage “What is suggested.” continued His Honour, “is that some members of the community have strong feelings that the law in regard fo this crime is unjust and should be unmade or altered, or that its administration is unjust or unfair and meets with their disapproval. T know nothing about that. Rut that is what is said, and what is suggested is that gentlemen who happen to pome on juries do sometimes take improper advantage of the opportunitv that their duty as jurymen affords them to dismiss a case where they should convict. “That, of course, is obviously wrong from a great many points of view. if. it ever happens.” His Honour added. It was very wrong, unjust and unfair if it ever happened that a juryman, because of the accident of the ballot which allowed him to sit on the jury, took the opportunity of saying: “I do not like this hit of law and j. am not going to administer it.” Temptations of Youth “The practice of illegal operations notoriously leads to serious dancer to the health and sometimes to the life of the woman practised upon. That is not far-fetched. T assume that, without being puritanical or taking any unduly strict view of morals, and rmifp realising the temptations by which youth in particular is assailed, any reputable citizens of either sex would like to see the youth of the country keeping reasonably straight in the manner of sexual morality and not drifting into all kinds of licence and sexual excess. “Well, there is no blinking the fact that, if the unpleasant consequences which they wish to avoid in this sort of indulgence are known to be easily removable, you will have a very sure set of circumstances which discourage restraint and encourage licence.” His Honour added that it was no doubt that, for such reasons the lawmakers of Britain and New Zealand had Ihought it proper to make an offence the class of conduct of which the woman was accused.