THE PROFESSIONAL JUROR.

NZ Truth, Issue 58, 28 July 1906, Page 4

THE PROFESSIONAL JUROR.

It is not everywhere in Australasia that there is the Coroner and his jurv. In more v than one State, magisterial enquiries are held on dead bodies, and the Magistrate makes a report to the Crown Law authorities giving, if needed, his opinion or suspicions, founded, of course, on the evidence he. has heard, of the cause of death, and any subsequent action is decided by those authorities. Now, it is the. opinion of many that the svstem of Coroner and jury inquest is an expensive and farcical one, which, with advantage to a country's coffers and the better administration of Justice might be abolished and be superseded by -the simpler mode of a magisterial investigation. "Truth" does not ipurpose making comparisons. What it is here desired to point out, as far as AVellington is concerned, and which has been pointed out wherever the Coroner and his jury exists, is that the' system is responsible for, if not a grave reflection on the integrity of those juries, then for the existence of a most undesirable person viz., the professional juror. We have him in Wellington and it is not saying too much to say that outside the fees he- draws -for sitting on "stiffs," he toils not neither does he spin, and unlike the lily, which is ever the emblem of all that is white and clean. -,the professional "Crowner's" juryman can be smelt a ohain away. Some of them are dirty, lazy loafers, who ought to be called upon to show their means of livelihood/ Not an accident, which may prove fatal, happens than the professional juror, like kite scenting carrion, haunts -the hospital ready and only too willing to cast his eyes on the cadaver and get within range of the eye of the officer whose duty it is to select the jury. Not a bodv is dragged out of the harbor but 1 the vulture hovers around the fore-shores. Not an inquest is held but two, three or more of the mivmmified, toothless and ill-odored "birds" sit cracking course, rude jests and often quoting Shakespeare—the grave-yard scene in Hamlet— the nhouls ! Some of them, through long service in the "profession," have picked up technical medical terms, and even show their utter ignorance by venturing to contradict doctors, who give their opinion of the cause of death. "Truth" has heard the Coroner and his jury described as "one of the safe-guards of civilisation." Mr Ashcroft, who officiates as Coroner in Wellington, no doubt is efficient -in his duties, but the same cannot be said of some of his juries. Their silly, senile attempts to make a sensation where death has been due- to natural causes has been remarked upon more than once. It is responsible for the recently . made assertion that Coronial inquiries in Wellington were the rudest of farces. Let one example suffice to show that "Truth" knows what it is talking about. At an inquest the other day the deceased's end was brdught about by Bright's Disease. That was the doctor's opinion. "Was it not," quoth one of the querimonious quid-nuncs on the jury (one grown old and hoary in the "profession"), "due to hydatids." .Another, having heard or read somewhere of the effect of prussic acid on the vital organs- of; the human body, sought, without having any basis upon which to found such an opinion, to stir up a sensation by suggesting that death was due to poisoning. The feelings of a deceased person's relatives are surelv to be considered. Sad they are at any time when one nearest and dearest tq them is cut off by the silent, Grim Reaper. Are those feelings to be the more relentlessly outraged by the idiotic, yet vile suggestion of a senseless, soulless skunk of a professional Coronial juror that the deceased either committed , suicide or *was murdered ? Now that so much has been said on this matter it is sincerelv to be hoped that in future therewill be less cause for complaint. Let those police officers, on whom devolves the dut^ of selecting a Coronial jurv. cive the hoary-headed, feefilching professional the go by. If we must have a Coroner's jurv let clean, respectable, men be selected. If the farce must be played, let the actors have, some semblance of seriousness and capability.