:%U WaikiTto mm# ANP THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. Rqual and exact justice.to all men. Of whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political, _ THURSDAY, SEPT. 1, 1892. '

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIX, Issue 3150, 1 September 1892, Page 2

: %U WaikiTto mm# ANP THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. Rqual and exact justice.to all men. Of whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political, _ THURSDAY, SEPT. 1, 1892. '

Mr Justice Conolly has now taken two opportunities of expressing his conviction that to do away with the system of Grand Juries would be detrimental to our judicial system. He states that even during his short experience on the Bench he had met with several cases where the interference of the Grand Jury by throwing out bills had been most useful and proper. In his charge to the Auckland Jury, he commented at considerable length on a charge of indecent assault, upon which a man had been committed for trial by magistrates, although there was not one particle of legal evidence to support the charge, the only depositions procurable being those of children of tender years, the committing magistrates themselves not being satisfied that their evidence could be accepted, ou the grounds that they were incapable of appreciating the solemnity of an oath, this objection, in the absence of corroborative evidence, being fatal to the case for the prosecution. Had this other evidanee been forthcoming, their statements might have been accepted for what they were worth. The man had been imprisoned for three months, awaiting the criminal sittings of the Supreme Court. The learned Judge placed I great stress on the fact that this man would have suffered the indignity of being placed in the dock had the Grand Jury not intervened. We confess to being unable to follow his reasoning, that the case favoured his contention that the substitution of a public prosecutor, in whom should rest the power of prosecuting or otherwise, would be a wrong departure. The Grand Jury's principal use, according to Mr Justice Conolly's own contention, is to protect a supposed criminal against the evil results which arise from the large number of incompetent justices who administer the law in outlying districts. The Judge laid considerable stress on the fact that the man had suffered three months'imprisonment. This was the result of the Grand Jury system, as that body only being convened once during that period could not, of course, intervene at an earlier date than has been the case. On the other hand, it appears to us that the public prosecutor should have the power, on consideration of the depositions on which a prisoner may be committed for trial on insufficient, legai evidence, to submit the case to a Judge of the Supreme Court and apply for his immediate discharge from custody. The publicity given by the Press to every criminal charge is a protection against the improper use of the discretion we suggest. Further, the Judge would only exercise the same power which he has in practice at present. The Judge, in his charge to the jury, points out that there is no legal evidence to secure the return a verdict of " Guilty" by the Petit Jury, they invariably find "no bill"; no useful purpose could be served by doing otherwise, as the judge has the power to direct the Petit Jury to find a verdict of " not guilty " on legal grounds. It must be remembered ulso that the men who compose the Grand Juries are similar in social position and in the possession of legal knowledge to tho magistrates, and of whom Mr Justice Conolly so bitterly complains, or the grounds of their incompetence in the latter respect. There is only this in their favour, they are more in number than the committing magistrates, and have the advantage of the statement of points of law which the judge in his

churge invariably makes in every case of difficulty. If there is nothing more to be urged in favour of Grand Juries than has been put forth by Mr Justice Conolly there is little indeed to be said in their favour, To be of ancient origin is no evidence of the usefulness of an institution under different circumstances to those which prevailed at the time of its creation. Before 1 the übiquitousness of the Press reporter it was possible that a man might suffer injustice at the hands not only of justices, but also of judges, and our progenitors were wise in having hedged around the freedom of every citizen with an «liiboru.tp jury system, which should do justice between " the sovereign and the prisoner at the bar." To our mind the Grand Jury is a less effective system than that of a trained Crown Prosecutor to perform the functions which appertain to it at present. For this reason we trust that the- Biil to do away with this old-fashioned and lio-longer-useful institution will pass through Parliament, and avoid in future the necessity of compelling a large number of men at certain periods to neglect their own affairs for the purpose of taking part in an almost meaningless ceremony.