SUPREME COURT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23016, 20 October 1936, Page 6

SUPREME COURT

LIGHT CRIMINAL CALENDAR ONLY ONE CASE FOR TRIAL Comment on the comparative freedom from serious crime that was being enjoyed by the Dunedin district was made by Mr Justice Kennedy in the course of his charge to the grand jury at the opening of the quarterly criminal sessions of the Supreme Court yesterday. The following grand jury was empanelled:—J. W. Dove (foreman), P. W. Curtis, J. G. C. Baker, R. A. Palmer, J. D. M ! Kechnie, C. T. Lee, J. Dobbie, W. Turnbull, L. M. Nees, A D. Hudson, T. H. Brown, J. H. Meek, A. L. Salmond, R. A. Frisk, J. W. Smeaton, E. T. Holler, A. Ibbotson, F. L. Lawrence, W. J. Duke, G. C. Thomson, 0. K. Tennant, C. E. Bond, and T. G. M’Cracken. “ I am pleased to be able to inform you,” said his Honor, “ that the criminal calendar for these sessions shows that the list is a very light one. Indeed, there has not been a lighter list since I have been sitting in this court in this city. There are three persons awaiting sentence, but there are only two charges arising cut of one occurrence that will require your attention. Having regard to the number of persons sentenced during the past three months and the light list before you, I think it is clear that the district has been comparatively free from serious crime, and that it may properly be congratulated on what, I am sure, is a real and not merely an apparent absence of any volume of crime.”

His Honor went on to inform the grand jury that the charges for its consideration arose out of the death of an elderly man and were manslaughter and, alternatively, assault causing actual bodily harm. After outlining the nature of the evidence, his Honor said the jury would doubt-

less conclude that there was a case to answer. The grand jury returned a true bill. ,