The Shooting Case Considered by Judge Gillies.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3367, 7 October 1879, Page 2

The Shooting Case Considered by Judge Gillies.

AUCKLAND.

Last night.

In his charge to tho Grand Jury at the opentnc of the Criminal Sessions yesterday Mr Justice Gillies made special reference to the Upper Thames shooting affair. He said neither he nor the jury could shut their eyes to the fact that since the last sitting of tho Court there had occurred outrages within this judicial district; the offenders in which had not been brought to justice, nor had hardly any steps been taken for that purpose. This we must feel to be a very unsatisfactory state of affairs. So long as crime remains unpunished, and so long as the strong arm of the laur was paralyzed by political considerations, we conld not hope for any feeling of security for the lives and property of settlers. In all there were 20 prisoner! for 19 offences of which the largest class was stealing from the persons of drunken men. One of the most noteworthy cases was that wherein the master of the ship Minister of Marine was charged with cruelty towards some of the seamen, while there was also a case of indecent assault in which a man entered the bed wherein two children slept, although no evidence of any indecent touching of their persons. A peculiar case of forgery; a case of rape upon a Maori woman, and an assault upon a native. With regard to these last he hoped no question of race would be set up, but that the aboriginal might be treated and looked upon just as Europeans would be.