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New Zealand Mail, Issue 661, 24 October 1884, Page 18

The Coroner at Invercargill appears to entertain peculiar notions concerning his duties in connection with Fire Inquiries. After one of the recent conflagrations in that town, the Fire Insurance Association asked for an official investigation. It was accordingly held, but the cause of the disaster was mot ascertained, and the jury returned an open verdict. The Coroner is reported to have said, during the course of the proceedings, that he did not see the use of holding these inquiries unless someone had pertinent evidence to offer. This strikes U 3 as a rather silly

remark. The Inquiry, as the word implies, should be something beyond a mere registering of evidence obtained beforehand. It should include a minutely careful sifting of every statement and every fact which promise to ■ have the slightest bearing ©n the ease. If that’ view were more generally adopted and acted on, and Coroners-were always men well versed in the examination of witnesses, there would be far fewer instances of open verdicts and the escape of fireraisers. In the event of it 3 being known beforehand that there is strong prima facie evidence that a certain person has been guilty of arson, the Coroner’s Inquiry is useless. It would save time to have the supposed guilty person arrested and charged before a Magistrate. The obscure cases are those which particularly demand the attention of the Coroner. As for the Coroner’s jury, it might as well be dispensed with at once.