MERRY PLAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 174, 24 July 1936, Page 9

MERRY PLAY.

MR. LEE'S RHETORIC.

JURYMEN'S QUALIFICATIONS

<MEN OF THE BEST CONDITION' (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Thursday. Merry play was made by Mr. A. J. Lee, Parliamentary Under-Secretary, in the second reading debate on the Judicature Amendment Bill in the House of Representatives to-day. With the definition of special jurymen as "men of the best condition," he exclaimed with a rhetorical gesture, "Physically interpreted, what chance has a slenderwaisted chap like myself got?"

"Men of the best condition!" Mr. Lee exclaimed, adding but how the phrase was to be construed had not been determined. "Do we put the tape round a man's brow or round his waist 2" he asked. "Men of the best condition. Justice and judgment by avoirdupois. Twice as much justice from a 14-stone man as from a seven-stone man? The heavier a man gets the more just he becomes. After all. let lis remain thin and be sinners. ' Esquire ? ' He would be the fellow who would have a motor car on the hire-purchase system. The merchant? Yes, he would be another fellow with a motor car 011 the hirepurchase system, and these gentlemen are to sit as a special jury in judgment over a distinguished elector of mine, the ex-champion feather-weight of the world, who was defended by the member for Auckland East, Mr. * Schramm, a few weeks ago. What chance has a world champion feather-weight got against men of the best condition, merchants and suchlike? If one talks with an Oxford accent one can go on a special jury, but if one has aspirations and I not aspirates, God help one, one is I gone." (Loud laughter.)

To " Cut Away This Impedimenta." Mr. Lee congratulated the AttorneyGeneral on liia determination "to cut away this impedimenta." "It is like one's appendix," he continued. "We no longer need all these trimmings attached to our legislation. No doubt the member for Wellington Suburbs feels that he is an ' esquire' and he is | concerned at the curtailment of his privileges. Just now, of course, lie is disqualified by the fact that he is a member of Parliament, but to-morrow he may again become an esquire and las such of superlative condition, and immediately he will be entitled to occupy a seat in the pew, or rather to become a member of the jury, while the great unwashed, such as.myself, not entitled to be termed esquire and such, or a man lof the best condition, are absolutely disqualified." World Moves On. The world had moved oil a little, Mr. Lee said. Probably the man who drove a cheap truck would be all right for an ordinary jury, but he who wanted to sit in the court and determine questions of fact would have to be "an esquire and such of the best condition." "I still believe that in a multitude of counsellors there is wisdom," he added. "Section 35 of the Juries Act, 1008, provides that the sheriff shall enter in a book the names of all men who are described in the jury lists as 'esquires, gentlemen, merchants, managers of banks, civil engineers and architects,' and also such other persons as are known to"him to be of the 'best condition,' so as to make up such a number of special jurymen as he considers necessary."