QUEER DUTIES OF CORONERS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LXI, Issue 9699, 2 November 1909, Page 3

QUEER DUTIES OF CORONERS.

Mauy quaint statements coucerniug coroners aud their duties are contained in the first report of the Departmental Committee appointed by the Home Secretary to enquire into the law relating to coroners' inquests, aud into the practice of coroners' courts.

Formerly they also held iuquests in cases of serious bodily injury, prison breach and housebreaking. They held enquiries iutc all cases of felony, treasure trove aud wreck. They also valued felons' goods for forfeiture to the Crown. Forfeiture for felony was only abolished in 1870. Another queer duty was the valuing of deodauds. That is to say, when a person was killed, the object by which he was killed was valued aud forfeited to the Crown. Mr Little states this held good, for instance, "if a man was killed by a bull or eveu run down by a ship. The bull was valued, and the price forfeited to the Crowu. The bull itself was killed. It was not exactly by direction of the corouer that the bull was killed, because I think there was a notion that it came uuder the Levitical law. But it was a serious matter when it came to confiscating a ship "

Deodauds were abolished in 18-hi, but before that there was a great case in which the jury did assess the value of a steamboat, aud the owners ouly got the forfeiture quashed on a technicality.

Auother interesting point is tlie law of treasure trove. The last recorded prosecution in England was in 183 ii, when, at Mountfort, near Hastings, a labourer fouud a lump of gold. Itwas discovered close to where King Harold was killed at Hastings, and was thought to have beeu his breastplate. Tlie finder sold it for os Gd to a man who kuew gold. He in turn so'ui it for more than £500 to certain refiners, who melted it. A recent case was noar Philliraore Gardens, Loudou. where workers found a large quautity or spade guineas. Thinking them bits of brass, they threw them to sma'l boys. Some of them fetched 25s to 30s each.