SUPREME COURT. (From the Nelson Examiner, 16th January.)

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XVII, Issue 1377, 22 February 1861, Page 3

SUPREME COURT. (From the Nelson Examiner, 16th January.)

1 Tuesday, 'Januaey 15. [Before the Honorable Justice Johnstone.] The Supreme Court sat for criminal oases yesterday. The following gentlemen weie sworn in as Grand Jurors : —John Wallis Barnicoat, foioinan, Andiew Richmond, G-. W. Schroder, W. Wilson, M. Bury, J. R. Creasy, H. E. Curtis, C.Elliott, A. W. Scarfe, J. Wilson, J. Beit, W. Collins, 0. Curtis, N. Edwards, and J. J. Fletcher. William Wells, who had been summoned as a Grand Juror and did not answer to his name, was fined £5. C. B. Wither, who had likewise been summoned, but who had been compelled upon urgent business to attend a court at Mailborough, was excused. The Judge charged the Grand Jury as follows :—: — i [

"Mb Foreman, and Gentlemen of the Grand Jury fob the Middle Di&tbici' — " Although lam sorry not to be able, as I fain hoped when I last sat here, to congratulate yon, on tins occasion, on the final pacification of the colony and on the re-establishment, on a safe, intelligible, and permanent basis, of the authority of the British Crown over the whole native population of these islands ; I think I have good reason for expiessmg moi c than a hope that the tzme js not far distant when the honour and dignity of Gieat Britain will be conclusively vindicated as respects the aboriginal subjects of the Ci own, not merely by a wholesome demonstration of British power, but by an instructive, encoiuaging, and leassuring manifestation of British justice, and of the determination on the part of the colonial authorities not to permit the disaffection, waywaidness, or mistakes of some of the natives to prevent the adoption and fulfilment of such measures of equity and wise policy as may in the end redound most effectually to the safety, honour, and welfaie. not only of her Majesty and her British-born subjects, but also of the whole of the abonglnal inhabitants of this portion of her vast empue. " I am not aware that the events of the last half year, within that part of my judicial district which you at piesent represent, call for any special observations or comments in this place. "I sinceiely trust that the love of order, respect for the law, an anxious deshe and hearty effort to support constituted authority, a wholesome sympathy between Guvexnois, Legislators, and Administiators of the ! Law, on one side, and the gieat body of the people on the otker, are steadily |progiessmg and incieasing amongst you, and are gradually tending to secure for this distant colony of the British Crown that firmness of pohtical consititution, that immunity from internal disturbance, that secunty to life, property, and character, that confidence in the administration of justice, that respect and admiration fiom the world without, which happily distinguish our beloved mother country among the nations of the earth. "One of the reasons for which it has Lein deemed inexpedient in England to abolish the tribunal of. the Grand Jury is, that its meeting gives the Judges an opportunity of directing the attention of the Justices of the Peace, of whom the Grand Jury is mainly composed, to lecent changes in the law ; and keeping this in viewj I should have wished to call youi attention on the present eccasion to those Acts of the recent sebsion of the Geneial Assembly which directly or indirectly affect the administration of the law, and, especially to those which belong to the depaitment o£ criminal jus tice : but I am unfortunately unable to do bo with ceitainty and precision, as I had nou, until my very recent arrival in this place, been able to procure a copy of the Acts. " I feel very sure that the Legislature, having once had its attention called to the fact that there have been Acts of the Assembly in force, some for three, others for nearly four months, befoie they were made known to a consideiable portion of the community to be affected by them, and to some of the Judges bound by oath to administer them, will take care in future to provide, except in special cases, that no Act shall take effect tdl a peiiod within which it can have been piomulgated throughout the whole colony. The mis chievous effect of the oversight alluded to is not hypothetical or theoietical only. In the discharge of my duties in another poition of my judicial district, I have recently had experience of senous practical embarrassment both to the Couit and its suitois, caused by this anomalous state of things. The question involved is not one of meie inconvenience ; it is of a much more giave character. But I doubt not that a simple indication of the anomaly will prevent its recunence on future occasions. " With respect to the state of the calendar, I must again lepeat what I have before said, both heie and elsewheie, that without a much more intimate knowledge than I yet possess of the state of the country and of the efficiency of the police, I should not consider myself justified in concluding, fiom the paucity of charges submitted for the consideration of criminal tribunals, that the country is m a wholesome and satisfactory condition m lespect of crime. To the development of your educational resources, to the ministrations of your cleigy of all denominations, to the cultivation of high and honourable punciples m the tiansactions of commeice and the inteicourso of oidmaiy life ; to the formation of a sound public opinion, intolerant of meanness or tuckeiy, roguery or impobtlue, either political oi social, and tending to tester that true and manly independence which leads men to act accoiding to their convictions of right, in spite of self-interest and in defiance of the dictates of party, without fear of the sneers and condemnation of their neighbours, and ■« ithout a morbid desire of popular applause ; to such sources and incentives of true popular virtue must wo mainly look for the production of a, moral tone, hkely to pi event and suppiess criminality. Nevertheless, wise and ellective measures of police, both for prevention and detection, ought to be most sedulously cultivated , and above all, the piosecution of detected offendeis should be conducted with the extremest care, vigilance, and efficiency ; and the punishment of the convicted should be carried out with unflinching, though humane, firmness and decision """ " One very serious charge will be brought before you, affecting the chastity of a young gul little moie than twelve years of age ; and with respect to it I may say, that it is one m which the intervention of a Grand Jury is very desiiable; for these charges of rape aie indeed, as a gieat legal luminary — whose dicta will be beacons to the latest British judges and juries — has pointed out, easy to be made and difficult to be refuted. You will not, I am suie, allow your minds to be unduly influenced against the accused on account of the youth of the prosecutrix. Neither you nor I, nor the Petty Jury, have any right to allow ourselves to be influenced by the consideration, that an act of great, even of inonstious immoiality has been committed, if theie has been no offence in point of law ; and it is not for us now to consider whether the law, as it stands, be a wise and just law or not. The offence of rape consists m having connexion with a female by force and against her will. But the law says, and very wisely says, that connexion with a female of veiy tender years (and ten years is taken as the limit) shall not be justified by the actual consent or even the solicitation of the child ; and, for the f urther protection of young girls, it makes connexion with a girl between ten and and twelve years of age, even with consent, a punishable misdemeanor. But after a girl has attained the age of twelve yeais, it presumes that she is capable of giving her consent, and she is expected to offer some lesistance in oider to protect her chastity ; and although a man having connexion with a. girl who has only just arrived at the age of twelve, with her consent, may be guilty of a shocking act of immorality, yet he is not punishable by law. And it would probably be found, on full consideration of all the points involved, that the law is by no means unreasonable in this respect. That, however, is not a question for either you or me to consider at present. Still the youthfulness of the suffeier may be a most important circumstance for the purpose of ascertaining the existence or non-existence of consent on her part ; and I am bound to say, from the perusal of the depositions in the present case, that had the prosecutrix been a few years older, probably no leasonable person would have doubted that she had not offered such resistance as she ought to have offered, and that it could hardly be believed that the act was done against her will. One of the most important tests in all cases of alleged rape, of the veracity of the woman, is whether she made immediate complaint or not ; but in this matter, as in the matter of resistance, the youthfulness of the prosecutrix is worthy of consideration. I think you will find very little corroboration in this case ; and I would caution you against hastily assuming that the evidence of the medical gentlemen who examined the girl amounts to corroboration. " But you will be able, from personal observation of the prosecutrix, from her demeanour and conduct befoie you, coupled with the other evidence, to form » safer judgment as to her veracity than can do done fiom a meie perusal of the depositions. You know very well that you are not to try the case, but have meiely to see whether thbie is a leasonable pnnut, j fiwie case to submit to fuller and more minute inquny befoie tbo Couit and a Potty Jiuy , "Depositions have been returned to the Couit m a case of The Queen on the piosecution of Uobmson | v. Dewson, takon.it Colling wood, bub on the facs of them I cannot see that any indictable offonco has been committed." '

North Shobe School.— lt is gratifying to gee that I the cause of edudatym is prospering ' across the Waitemata. One acre of land has been given for the puipose by Mr. B. Menary, and a school-house 27 xl 6 hiiS ' • been erected on the same, where already twenty' scholars are receiving daily tuition from Mr. McKay, who, we are informed, is a most ablo and pains-taking master. The building itself was erected by subscription, andjjthe whole property is in the handa of the trustees — Messrs. T. Russell, Edw. King, and Edw. Hammond.