AUCKLAND.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 1, Issue 26, 20 March 1858, Page 2

AUCKLAND.

By the Overland Mail we have papers to the Bth inst. The English Mail had not been received, and, with the exception of the Supreme Court sittings, we observe nothing of general interest.

Flour was quoted at £^6 and £14. Bread at 4d. per 2 lb. loaf. The opening of the Court by the new Chief Justice is thus adverted to in the New Zealander of the 3rd inst. —

We had the other day to announce the arrival of Mr. Arney, late Recorder of Winchester, who has been appointed the successor of Mi. Martin as Chief Justice of New Zealand. Our new Judge has not had to wait long before actively commencing the discharge of his official duties ; and he appears to have created a favourable impression among all parties by the unostentatious but business-like manner in which on Monday last he commenced his judicial career in Auckland by his charge to the Grand Jury. Of that charge we have given a substantial outline in our report of the proceedings of the Criminal Sessions which have been held this week ; we therefore need only here direct attention to the graceful manner in which the new Chief Justice adverted to the public and private, virtues of his predecessor, Mr. Justice Martin, and to the recent sudden removal by death of his acting predecessor, Mr. Justice Stephen. In his remarks on the predominating character and predisposing causes of crime in this Province and Colony, Mr, Justice Arney spoke -with an

earnestness .which evinced sincerity of conviction and purpose, and we trust that his appeal to all classes to support precept bypersonal example will not be without its timely and lasting efficacy. The suggestions for greater strictness and regularity in the method of conducting inquiries relative to casualties and criminal offences, and especially as to the mode of taking down the statements of prisoners or parties under suspicion, will, we trust, be also carefully attended to, for of nothing is the system of English Criminal Jurisprudence more jealous, than the principle of holding every man innocent until he is proved guilty, and of manifesting the utmost impartiality to every person either actually or likely to be placed on his trial for offences against person or property. We hope that Mr. Justice Arney may long be blessed with the health and energy so necessary to the discharge of his important functions, and that by emulating the virtues, he may win opinions as golden as those which he justly assumes to have been won by his friend and predecessor, Mr. Justice Martin, (whom we shall heartily rejoice to welcome back to New Zealand although no longer holding any judicial appointment) ; but long may it be ere he has again to pass sentence on a fellow-creature.

The first occasion of his Honor's sitting judicially was attended by painful circumstances, arising from the necessity of sentencing the prisoner, John Killey — the particulars of whose case have appeared in our columns — to the punishment of death. His Honor is said to have been moved even to tears. And, scarcely it is said, had the concluding words "may the Lord have mercy on your soul" passed from the lips of the agitated Judge, when the miserable culprit fell down in the dock in a fainting fit, in which condition he wss removed to the condemned cell, and the Court was dissolved.