West Coast Times. THURSDAY, MARCH 7, 1878.

West Coast Times, Issue 2787, 7 March 1878, Page 2

West Coast Times. THURSDAY, MARCH 7, 1878.

We have from time to time drawn attention to the manner in which New Zealand citizens are harassed by the operation of the present jury system. In no part of the Colony is the evil more heavily felt, and more bitterly complained of, than in Westland ; hut, notwithstanding this, no public combined effort has hitherto been made to abate what is acknowledged by everyone to be an almost intolerable nuisance. It is not that people object to trial by jury, either in civil or criminal causes, but it is justly thought that the law might be so modified as to give us the full benefit of a popular aud time-honored institution with far less inconvenience and expense than jurors are at present put to. Taking into consideration the comparatively small population of Westland, and the really small amount of crimiual and civil business which has to be got through in the course of a year, the number of persons who are from time to time summoned from their homes to attend Supreme, District, Coroners', aud Wardens' Courts, is overwhelmingly large. Moreover it has frequently happened that, owing to some oversight on the part of the presiding judge, jurymen have been kept in attendance long after all necessity for their presence in Court bus passed away. No doubt it is usual, when the last case on the list is* being tried, to dismiss the remainder of the panel, but this has not always been done, and sometimes there has beau unnecessary delay in paying the miserable pittance which is allowed for a juryman's service. A f.areful examination of the jury lit from which the Sheriff draws the various panels would probably disclose the fact that the names of many householders are omitted. We do not blame the police for this. The shifting character of a portion of the population, and the fact that the list ia ouly made up once a year, sufficiently account for a state of things which throws an additional quantity of work on to the shoulders of the more settled portion of the community. It would be better, especially iv this part of New Zealand, if the list were revised every six months. Another means, aud a most important one, of lightening the burden would be the entire abolition of the grand jury — the names of all the gentlemen composing it being added to the list of common jurors. We can see no good use that the grand jury serves, and some of those who compose it, are of the same status, and degree of education, as their less favoured brethren of the common jury. In the Colony of Victoria there is no such thing as a grand jury, and we have never yetheard that it has been called for, "or

that the course of justice has been the less smooth and certain on account of its absence. Moieover the addition to the common jury list of so many men of superior intelligence and education could not fail to be of advantage iv the administration of justice. At present the grand jury affords in too many instances a protection to thejjuilty, and we have somewhere read that at a thieves' ordinary tho first toast after the cloth was drawn was — " The Grand Jury — the Magsman's best friend." It cannot indeed be otherwise when we consider the usual preliminary sieps in a criminal prosecution. Firstly there is a sort of informal examination of wituesses by the police ; that is each man tells the hietory of the crime so far as it lies ivithin his knowledge, and these statements are reduced to writing 1 by the officer who has charge of the case ; secondly a regular examination of witnesses takes place before the Magistrates in the presence of the prisoner ; thirdly, if he is committed for trial, tho depositions are placed before the Crown Solicitor, who need not, we believe, send i bill before the grand jury unless there ippears to him fair grounds for thinking the prisoner guilty. But, supposing a bill to be sent to the grand jury t.he case instead of advancing actually These gentlemen are supposed to have no previous knowledge whatever about it. The bill tells them in technical language — often sufficiently puzzling — what the charge is, and a iist of the Crown witnesses is endorsed on it, The grand jury sit with closed .loors ; they are not allowed the use of the depositions; the prisoner is not present ; they do not know what any one of the witnesses has sworn before ihe Magistrates ; the witnesses themselves have but small dread of a prosecution for perjury, indeed we never yet heard of such a proou account of false testimony giveu in the grand jury room. In fact the grand jury arv at every disadvautage. They grope their ivay iv the dark, the light of the in spector's office, the Magistrate's Court, and the Crown Solicitor's brief, being carefully excluded. What wonder, thpu. that an unwilling witness should make matters pleasant for the prisoner, knr>wmg, as he does, that he can never be called to account ? What wonder fl a<- :>: > 1 1 1 after bill is thrown out ? More thau once it has happened in Westland that a piisoncr has admitted the crime, has declared his intention of pleading guilty and throwing himself on the mercy of the Court, aud on the morning appointed for tho irial has beard to his intense amazement th;»* thr grand jury uas found "no irue hill." Twin*, -it least, this occurred whilst Judge Harvey was the Crown Solicitor in Westland. We can sco nooneadvtiutage in retaining tho grand jury, and w( j have slated pretty plainly the good which would certainly result from its abolition. It may be added that in the Di-trict Court there is no such thing known, and if justice does not require it "here, it is not wanted in the Supreme Court. There is a special grievance connected with (he jury panels in the District Court which should only need mentioning to ensure its speedy removal. The Sheriff draws the juries for the trial of criminal cases, but the Clerk of the Court has another list from which he takes the juries for civil cases. Every name on the clerk's list is also on the Sheriff's, and it frequently hap pens that a person who has only a very short time before served as a juror in the District Court is called on for another turn of duty in the Supreme Court, and vice versd. The remedy for this is obvious. All jury summonses, whether for the Supreme or District Court, should be issued by the Sheriff; and in no case should a man be called on to serve a second time until the list has been fairly run out. Iv the Wardens' Courts we find again other lists, in many instances embracing names which appear in the lists of the Sheriff aud the Clerk of the District Court. The evil here has not been so much felt, as there are only four on a Warden's jury, aud by far the greater number of cases arc tried by the Warden alone. Still improvement is needed iv the method of compiling the lists. Coming lastly to the Coroner's Courf we find there are no lists, and for obvious reasons it is not advisable that there should be. The Coroner issues his warrant to summon a jury, and this duty is performed by an officer of police, who generally s;ives a mere verbal notice to those whom he desires to attend. We have heard of no complaints from the country districts as to the working of this part of the system; but in Hokitika there is scarcely an inquest held without bitter complaint on the part of some of the jurymen that they are almost invariably Hummonedjand those whose duty compels them to attend inquests take not ice of the same faces appearing again and again oa the jury benches with the regularity of clockwork. These jurymen are, generally speaking, small tradesmen, who do not keep shopmen, and are, therefore, certain to be found behind tho couuter when the officer is hunting up a sufficient number of good men and true to enquire into the cause of some unfortunate's death, or lo ascertain how the rags and kerosene placed under a highly insured building caught fire at two or three o'clock in the morning. We sympathise heartily with these often-summoned tradesmen who, at perhaps half-an-hour's notice, are required to lock the doors of their shops, and devote the rest of the day to the public service. The remedy here is simple enough. It would, as we have already remarked, be unadvi sable to make use of the Sheriff's list for the purpose of summoning Coroners' juries, but such instructions might be given to the police of Hokitika and Greymouth, as would cause the burden of service to be distributed more fairly on the shoulders of the townspeople. We do not know that legislation on

this point is required ; but with reference to the grand jury, the double service of Supreme and District Court juries, and the lax method of summoning jurors in the Warden's Courts, it is certainly hiw-h time that great changes should bo made. We commend the subject to the consideration of Ihe representatives of the Provincial District.