JURY DISAGREEMENTS

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 February 1937, Page 5

JURY DISAGREEMENTS

MINISTER’S COMMENT. [PEB PRESS ASSOCIATION.] WELLINGTON, February IS. Comment, was made to-day by Hon. 11. G. R. Mason (Minister of Justice), on the verdict of the disagreed jury at the fourth trial of Mrs Isabel Annie Aves, also known as Craike, married, of Hastings, who stood trial at Napier, and three times at Wellington, on seven charges of Using an instrument’ with the intent to procure a miscarriage. The Minister remarked that the jury system was so fundamental a part of the judicial system that no change should be made without a great deal of consideration.

A BISHOP'S WARNING. WELLINGTON, February IS. . The danger of the Christian and moral standards of New Zealand being lowered, was stressed by the Bishop of Wellington, Rt. Rev. H. St. Barbe Holland, when speaking to-day at the luncheon of the Optimists’ Club. “In New Zealand,” said the Bishop, “there are disquieting suggestions that our public life, on the Christian foundation of which we pride ourselves, is being undermined. Events within the last few weeks have suggested it. We have seen the failure of juries of our land to express the conviction of the nation that the abominable crime of abortion must not be allowed within its borders. 1 am encouraged by the words of the Chief Justice, at the conclusion of the fourth trial, to express my strong conviction that a nation that cannot agree that this crime should not escape without punishment is- untrue to the .fundamental Christian tradition of the British Commonwealth.” . ■■■-— ]