JURY SYSTEM AT HOME.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19765, 12 October 1927, Page 14

JURY SYSTEM AT HOME.

LORD HEWART'S DEFENCE. PROFESSIONALISM DEPRECATED. LONDON, Oct. 2. "Apparently the Halifax solicitor, Mr. J. W. Pickles, who suggests that professional jurymen should be appointed at £IOOO a year, does not appreciate the meaning or the value of the jury system," says the Lord Chief Justice, Sir Gordon Hewart. "Juries discharge the function of arriving at a true conclusion on the evidence with the most remarkable capacity and judgment, and their unanimity resembles magic," adds the Chief Justice. "I agree with the late Lord Sterndale, Master of the Rolls, when he said that juries are never wrong, meaning that their verdict corresponded strictly with the weight of evidence. If a case needed a reviewing, it was the fault of those insufficiently discharging the task of producing relevant evidence and considerations arising therefrom. "Individual selection would not improve the system. On the contrary, it might suggest partisanship, from which the present haphazard selection is free. "Women jurors are an admirable and most valuable reinforcement to the system. They are less likely than men to be imposed upon by an extremely goodlooking woman."