LETTERS TO THE EDITOR THE GRAND JURY SYSTEM

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXX, Issue 13669, 17 June 1942, Page 2

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

THE GRAND JURY SYSTEM

Sii’.—A letter bv correspondent on the J ~ eeu brought to my et °PioH lew remarks on it mum i'° e emng, so here goes 6 1 be Your correspondent „ •!notice Johnston’s s L q,,o 'es v , \ heYe , is :l Hkelihood of '"T Jm ’y bem S dispensed , T ? e Gra : i war owing to the call h „? Urin ßtU power. It should be L P ° n ®srmat the Grand Jury jg 1"® l!! isiaj irom that class eligible v>co. but from a class vvW^ r " business experience «••».-? a " ?a - ! choice to such a resnonl n ,s tl! ■ to me community p! SlbK ' s m: Peel I would like to otic? ' bat ■’ ™ a , rks - °ne of OUV Si ;l‘ jHvvr, Judges, whose name •>, ° slipped my memory w 011 ' bon the risk we run to select men f or ■ qualitioaiious for f i;J, "‘b<. inestlons der, suggesting the need mi! Sre 0r non of the community bohm/ 1 on legal questions before L cepted as jurymen. ThiU S both to the grand and comn,n. a ? pl: '’ : as it is to-day, selectbV“ r ‘ who on account of leisure ness can spare the time qualifications are chiefly of character, that they ’are ? “yes” men to a stroiw er G who is selected as foreman "“J? are known where a true bill , e mT the grand jury, has received r shntt by the common jury am case dismissed. ’ nth

The arguments put forward that he system can be traced back to"! Equity is not its justifications, £ Roman law, the basis of our own I not free from error, as witness. LoH Lytton s work on “Reinise”— the hrof the Roman Tribunes, where evi dence of corruption and cruel laws existed, as with us, that should he expunged and not allowed to be re vived, as sometimes they are to frame a case.

Trial by jury should be properlv prised, and to do so is to extend our education, selecting those whose tr aining gives them a proper credential. There can be no such reason as stated, for its elimination, hut a stronger reason for a more cultured selection for the service of the Crown.—l am etc., J.H.F.