122 Timekri. 



4th June, 1918, and following days, and after one day's hearing and 

 before the opening address was concluded, the jury was discharged and 

 the trial was postponed to the October Session by the learned Chief 

 Justice with the approval of all the counsel engaged on the ground 

 that it was expedient for the ends of justice. After such postponement 

 a certain portion of the public Press of this Colony expressed views 

 on this case and on events connected therewith which have arisen 

 subsequent to the said postpen:ment, and public speeches have been made 

 upon the subject as shown by extracts hereto annexed and marked 

 " A " from the " Tribune," a bi-weekly newspaper having a circulation 

 in this Colony and also by reports of speeches hereto annexed and 

 marked " B " in The " Daily Argosy " and " The Daily Chronicle,"' daily 

 newspapers circulating in the Colony. 



Obeah. 



4. Obeah is being widely practised in the Colony at the present 

 time and there is among the uneducated and poorly educated of all races, 

 a great fear of obeah-workers and a certain amount of belief in their 

 powers. Within the last two months there have been three convictions 

 of four persons on obeah charges in the Magistrate's Court of the county 

 of Demerara. 



5. Owing to the popular prejudices stated to affect the accused 

 adversely on the one hand, and owing to the connection of the evidence 

 in this case with obeah and obeah-workers on the other, and further owing 

 to the forementioned publications and public speeches, it is advisable to 

 have a Special Jury. 



Counsel for the defence having been heaid as to why a special 

 jury should not be granted, and the Attorney General having replied, 

 His Honour the Chief Justice as reported in " The Daily Argosy " said : — 



" This is an application for an order that the cause of the King v. 

 Sewdin and others be tried by special jury. This application was 

 made under section 42 of the Ordinance. No. 25 of 1918, which they knew 

 had been recently enacted by the Legislature of the Colony, and when he 

 said that the Ordinance was part of the Statute law of the Colony, passed 

 at the instance of the Legislature of the Colony, he had said all that need 

 be said about it. Its passage through the Court, the various objections 

 raised to its passage and the arguments adduced in support of objections 

 to it and so on could not be considered. It was law here now and he had to 

 administer it. Any arguments addressed to the fact that it differed from 

 the law of England and that its provisions are likely to work hardship or 

 not, were so much beating the air. All that he had to decide wis 

 whether a special jury should in this case be ordered to be struck on the 

 same principles as governeJ the application for a special jury in civil 

 cases or in difficult criminal cases, and the argumcut that he must look 

 for extra special reasons, was quite unfounded. 



