WANGANUI JURORS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 68, 22 March 1939, Page 6

WANGANUI JURORS

LISTS BEING REVISED COMPLIANCE WITH THE LAW Revision, of the jury lists takes place on April 12. This work, after certain formalities nave oeen complied with, is done by justices of the peace. Lists of persons qualified to act as jurors is compiled as laid down by the Juries Act, 1908. Each town wherein sittings of the Supreme Court take place is called a “Court town.” The police make lists of men resident within that town and a 10mile radius of the Courthouse, who are not exempted from service on a jury. This list is handed to the registrar of the Court, who calls a meeting of justices to peruse, amend and pass it. Two justices form a quorum. • Exemptions from service as jurymen are provided in the Act for members ot both Houses of Parliament and of the Executive Council, Judges of the Supreme Court, clergymen, schoolmasters • and inspectors, medical men, dentists, barristers and solicitors, coroners and gaolers, masters of vessels and seamen, men in the permanent military forces and in the navy, officials paid salaries by the Governor-General, certain railwaymen and certain members of the Post and Telegraph Department. The Act sets forth the classes of railwaymen who are exempt engineers in charge of districts, traffic managers, guards and engine-drivers, signalmen, porters and shunters, inspectors, gangers and shop managers. The sheriff is required by the Act to keep the lists of jurymen at the Courthouse and from the list he makes a roll of men known to him to be, or appear from their descriptions to be, acquainted with business, mercantile or banking matters. That roll comprises the list of special jurors and it is from the list of special jurors that the Grand Jury is chosen for each opening Court day. I When the Supreme Court opens | and a criminal calendar has be dealt with, two lots of jurors must be called to be in readiness. The first comprises the Grand Jury. Its function is to review the evidence brought against an accused person in the Lower Court and determine whether there is sufficient evidence to place that accused person on trial. A Grand Jury, finding sufficient evidence Io place an accused on trial, comes back into the Court and advises His Honour that it has found a “True Bill” against that person, If, in the opinion of the Grand Jury, the evidence is not sufficient to warrant a trial, the finding is “No Bill,” and the accused person is not bothered further. Once a Grand Jury finds a “True Bill” the Court empanels a common jury of 12 to hear all the evidence in open Court and decide whether the accused is guilty or not guilty. I Juries are not used only in crim- | inal cases. Common jurors are often (called upon to deal with civil matters. | Claims for damages come before juries, actions for divorce, and libel actions.