SUPREME COURT CALENDAR

Taranaki Daily News, 22 May 1934, Page 11

SUPREME COURT CALENDAR

CONGRATULATIONS FROM JUDGE.

VERY FEW CRIMINAL CASES.

“All I can say, gentlemen, is ‘I compliment you,’ ” said the Chief Justice, the Right Honourable Sir Michael Myers, P.C., K.C.M.G., when at the opening of the Supreme Court sessions at New Plymouth yesterday he concluded a short address to the Grand Jury on the absence of crime in the district during the past quarter. His Honour said he had been informed by the Registrar (Mr. H. Gilmore Smith) that it was the smallest list of crime for a. quarter that he had seen during the 10-year period he had been at New Plymouth. After dealing with the single case for the Grand Jury’s attention his Honour said he would address to them a few words on law and order in the district as evidenced by the statistics and particulars which came before the court. There were only two criminal cases on the calendar, one of which had been held over,from the last sessions and in which a true bill had already been returned. Since the last sessions there had been only the one case, which he had already mentioned, of an indictible offence to come before the Supreme Court. The person charged was not a resident of New Plymouth. Since the last quarter the number dealt with by the Supreme Court on commitment for sentence was only four cases for the whole district. One more was just to hand. He would deal with it at the present sitting, making the number of such cases five.

The first point of interest to the Grand Jury was that in none of these cases did the person charged come from New Plymouth and all the offences were committed outside the borough of New Plymouth. The second point he wished to make, proceeded the Chief Justice, was that when he had seen the calendar that day and observed that there was only one criminal case, he had expressed some surprise. It was so different to what one. was accustomed to lately with the exception of Wanganui. He had remarked to the Registrar that surely there must have been a certain amount of crime during the quarter. The Registrar had stated that the position was very unusual—it had been the smallest list of crime for the quarter that he had seen at New Plymouth.