GRAND JURIES AND THEIR USES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CV, Issue 12426, 15 February 1901, Page 4

GRAND JURIES AND THEIR USES.

Happily we are not debarred, as the Crown Prosecutor is, from “speaking disrespectfully of a time-honoured institution ” when the interests of the public demand the use of disrespectful language. The truth which Mr Stringer endeavoured to* express politely and firmly yesterday, is that the Grand Jury has outlived its Usefulness. It is one' of those duplications that occur even in the best-ordered constitutions. At on© time, no doubt, it kept a check on hasty and ill-considered verdicts of the lower Courts, but whatever its use may have been there is to-day absolutely no justification for its existence. It has, undoubtedly, 'saved scores of criminals from the just reward of their misdeeds, even in New Zealand. If alts function- is to weigh the facts revealed in evidence in the lower Courts, surely a trained lawyer would be more competent to carry out that difficult duty. It has' been suggested that a law officer, appointed by the Crown, should decide whether or not cases sent up by Justices and’ Magistrates should be gone on with in the Supreme Court, and were it not for the pnblio prejudice against giving such power into the hands of on© man, that would undoubtedly be the best, system to adopt. But it would be quite safe, even with the present machinery for the administration of justice, to drop the grand Jury out of the system completely. The work of the Supreme Court would be increased,’ but we should), certainly find that of the lower Courts more carefully done, and the judicial scheme would be much simplified. The fiasco in the Chatham Islands' forgery, case, is, of course, an extreme frustration of the evils of the Grand Jury system, and a few such absurdities would speedily bring about th© desired reform. But the public, we imagine, are already practically unanimous on the subject, and’ probably the next session of Pa-riiam-ent will see one more r-elfa of the darker ages consigned to the obscurity from Which it was drawn.