Private Prosecutions.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XIX, Issue 1878, 1 September 1886, Page 2

Private Prosecutions.

The poitu ad gently raised in the Wellington Resident Magistrate's Court a" to the right of the police to conduct t . .'lnal prosecution, based on an information sworn ♦o by a private person. The question was rollglit before the Chief Justice, but his Honor, while declining to give a ruling on the queatian, suggested that the propoaitipn referred to in Stephen's Oonmentiriee should

e h.-hco lu>! Air atdeli wooe ;li* n has given Lis ucen ion »o the point, aod declared against the light of the police to act in Court in oases where private individuals were the informants. Mi Wardell founded nnon “ The Justices of the Peace Act,” 1883, which provides ; —" Both il.o informant and the party against whom the information is isid, hereinafter called the detendant, shall be at liberty to appear personally, or by a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court.” Founding upon this, Mr Wardell remarked He took it that the defendant must appear personally or by a barrister. Under the Police Offences Act, passed in 1884, power was given to the police to conduct cases under that statute—but only in such cases. Otherwise there was no power for the police to appear except as the informant. If an information was laid in the ordinary way by a police constable he did not think there would be any objection to a superior officer conducting the case. But where the information was laid by private persons he knew no right on the part of the police to conduct the prosecution.” This decision will give increased employment ta barristers and solicitors.