The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1902-04-01
NOTHING TO SAY
Courts Charge to the Grand
Jury Almost Ignores
Police Criminality.
BOUQUETS IN ORDER
Five Hundred Words on a
Technical Breach Of Law
BY the Street and
Water Board.
ONE HUNDRED ON SUNDAY RUN
Hudson County Remarkably
Free From Serious Crime
at Present.
ONE HUNDRED ON SUNDAY RUN

at Present.
The April term of the County Courts
opened this morning with Justice Collins 8
charge to the Grand Jury. The address
was chiefly remarkable for the few sub
jects treated specially AT the very be-
ginning the Court took occasion to COM
pIlment the last Grand Jury and statea
that the condition that there We're so lew
matters requiring special presentation
was largely due to the diligence of the
last grand inquest
The only subject dwelt upon at length
was the action of the Jersey City BoalG
of Street and Water Commissioners IN
awarding a contract for a sewer on Sixth
street to be paid for out of the license
moneys when they became available. Hen
ry f. Byrnes, the contractor who did ths
work had to sue the city for his money.
and Justice Collins in the Supreme Court
returned a verdict in his favor. The court,
in this mornings charge, said 1t did not
believe that it was the intention of the
Board to violate the law, but that inao-
vertently or otherwise they had done so.
as under the law a contract could not DC
awarded to be paid out of an appropria-
tion anticipated.
The declaration of the last Grand Jury
in the final presentment that disorderly
houses and the illegal sale of liquor were
permitted by the police authorities in
different sections of the county was re-
ferred to- and the Court stated that it
had received other information that indi-
Gated that there was room for inquiry
on the subject, especially in the northern
part of the county.
The case of Samuel Hague who shot to
death James Wilson, a supposed burglar.
:, who entered a house in the Bergen sec
tien-of Jersey City, was briefly touched
on.
1t was 10 80 o'clock when the members.
of the new Grand Jury, headed by Fore
man John Edelstein and Sheriff Ruemp-
ler filed into court. Justice Collins and
Judges Blair and Nevius were on the
bench. An unusually large number of
lawyers thronged the court room await
ing the call of the calendar.
When the roll of the Grand Jury was
called. ex-Alderman A. NJ. Henry of Jer-
sey City failed to respond, and Justice
Collins announced that he had been in
formed that Mr. Henry had gone South
and would not return for some time. The
oath of office was accordingly admins
tered by Clerk James F. O'Neill of the
Supreme Court to the twenty-three jurors
present, including William Price, the last
one selected James F. Clark was sworn
as clerk to the Grand Jury and Justice
Collins then began his charge, which was
as follows
At no term. gentlemen since I have
IF fu
has there been so little requiring special
presentation to the Grand Jury. Your
predecessors were dilgent in disposing of
the pending criminal business, and the
new cases are not of unusual character.
There are but fifteen prisoners awaiting
your action. The charges against them
should receive your first attention. Cases
of homicide should always be noticed by
the coourt. There is only one for consid-
Grafton In that case formal charge of
manslaughter will be laid before you, but
the facts as they are given to the court
probably show no criminality. The de-
ceased after break niignto a dwelling
house by night. was shot by one of the
inmates aroused by a burglar alarm. Our
statute provides that anyone who shall
kill a person attempting to commit
burglary shall be guiltless and totally ac-
quilted and discharged. Your inquiry
will be not of the necessity or propriety
of firing the shot but only of the exist
ence Of the facts to bring the case within
the statute.
On the hearing of a civil action during
last term I was made aware of what
seems a clear breach of the law by pub
lie body and feel 1t my duty to lay the
facts before you. BY Section 81 of the
Grimes Act it is made a misdemeanor for
a municipal board to incur an obligation
IN excess. of the appropriation and limit
of expenditure provided by law for the
purpose, or for any member of such board
to vote for the incurring of such an abb
legation. Under legislation applicable TO
Jersey City a portion of the moneys re-
ceived from licenses may be appropriated
by the Board Of Finance for street anu
sewer Improvements, and when so ap-
propriated is to be expended solely by
the Board Of STREET and Water Commits
SONS In April, 1900 when there was a
very small sum. nineteen hundred dollars,
as I remember it., to the credit of the IL
cense fund. the Board of Street and Wa
ter Commissioners, after advertisement
awarded a contract involving an expend.-
ture of about twenty thousand doifarS
for the repair and extension of the Sixth
street sewer. to be paid for out of license
moneys when received.
cannot think that the board meant
t. violate the law, hut It seems plain to
me that inadvertently or otherwise they
have done so. 1t may be that it was sup
posed that license moneys did not come
within the statute, it not being one Of
the regular annual appropriations. The
setting apart of license moneys Is in ex-
o,l zue11 Tnfed Raudu