There shall be a Jury Officer for each jury district who shall be—

During the absence or during a vacancy in the office of any such Registrar the Deputy Registrar shall act as Jury Officer.

Subject to section 16 of this Act, the Sheriff of every jury district shall, on or before the first day of May in every year next following a general election of members of the House of Representatives, send to the Jury Officer for the district a notice in the prescribed form calling upon him to prepare a list of jurors and shall state the number of persons which in his estimate will be required for the new jury list.

Subject to section 15 of this Act, as soon as practicable after the receipt of the notice the Jury Officer shall select by ballot, or by any other method of selection based on chance, from the electoral roll of the European electoral district in which the jury district is situated, as that roll stood on writ day for the preceding general election, the appropriate number of persons who are apparently qualified and liable to serve as jurors. The appropriate number of such persons shall be the number estimated by the Jury Officer to be sufficient, after all objections have been considered and all deletions made, to produce not less than the number of persons specified as being required by the Sheriff:

“Provided that where the jury district is not wholly within the bounds of any one such electoral district then the electoral rolls of all such electoral districts which include any part of the jury district shall be used:

“Provided also that where only a small portion of any such electoral district falls within the jury district the Governor-General may, by Order in Council, provide that the names of the persons on the roll for that electoral district shall not be included on that particular jury list.

Subject to section 16 of this Act, the Registrar of Electors for each of the Maori electoral districts shall not later than the first day of June in every year next following a general election of members of the House of Representatives extract from his roll, as it stood on writ day for that election, and forward to each Jury Officer a list of the names of all persons who appear to reside in the Jury Officer’s jury district.

On the receipt of the list the Jury Officer shall compile a roll of those names in accordance with section 63 of the Electoral Act 1956 and so that the number of names to the page is as nearly as possible the same as the number of names most commonly appearing on the pages of the electoral rolls being used for the selection of jurors under subsection (2) of section 14 of this Act in his jury district. Jurors shall be selected from every roll so compiled as if it were an electoral roll for a European electoral district in which the jury district was situated.

Where the Governor-General by an Order in Council made under the second proviso to subsection (2) of section 14 of this Act provides that the names of the persons on the roll for any European electoral district shall not be included on any jury list then the names of all Maoris residing in that European electoral district shall be likewise not included on that jury list or on any list or roll compiled under this section.

If at any time Parliament is dissolved before it has been in existence for two years the Governor-General may, by Order in Council, order that no new jury lists shall be prepared in the year following the general election which takes place after that dissolution of Parliament.

Forthwith after the selection of the names the Jury Officer shall send by post to each of the persons selected a notice in the prescribed form informing him of his selection and the grounds on which a person is not qualified or not liable to serve as a juror.

Any person so notified, who is a person not qualified and liable to serve as a juror or who is a woman who does not wish to serve as a juror, shall request in writing, within one month after the receipt of the notice, that his or her name, as the case may be, be not included on the list and shall at the same time advise the Jury Officer in writing of the fact or wish which makes that person not qualified or not liable to serve as a juror. Except where the request is made on the ground that the person resides outside the jury district, the person’s name shall not be inserted in the jury list for the district where the fact or wish stated would, if true, make that person not liable or not qualified to serve as a juror.

In any case where the request is made on the ground that the person resides outside the jury district the Jury Officer, if he is satisfied that the person is so resident, shall not include that person’s name on the jury list.

In any case where the Jury Officer includes the name of any person on the list after he has received a request from that person under subsection (2) of this section that the person’s name be not included he shall send the person a letter notifying him that his name has been included on the list and shall inform him that he may appear before the Justices and object to the inclusion of his name in the list.

Every person whose name is included on the jury list after he has made a request that it be not included may appear before the Justices settling the final list and object to the inclusion of his name on the list.

Every person who wilfully makes a false claim that he is not qualified or not liable for jury service commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds.

Upon the expiry of six weeks from the day when the Jury Officer posted the last of the notices under subsection (1) of section 17 of this Act he shall make out, in the prescribed form in alphabetical order, a true list of all persons selected as aforesaid and apparently qualified and liable for service as jurors, with the full Christian name and surname, place of abode, and occupation, and shall send the same together with two copies to the Sheriff so that it reaches him not later than the seventh day of September in the year in which it is made.

The Jury Officer shall also advise the Sheriff of the names of all persons whose names have been included in the list despite the fact that they have requested under subsection (2) of section 17 of this Act that their names be not included.

The Sheriff, on receipt of the original and copies of the list, shall send one copy to the senior member of the Police in the jury district and shall deposit another in his office for inspection and perusal by the general public.

The Sheriff of the jury district shall, by a notice in the prescribed form published in such manner as he thinks fit at least fourteen days before the day of the meeting, call, for the purpose of revising the jury list, a meeting of the Justices residing within the jury district, to be held on the first Friday in October of every year in which a list of jurors is prepared under section 14 of this Act, at some suitable building, to be named in the notice, at the Court town of the district.

The Sheriff shall at the same time give notice to the Police and, by registered letter, to every person whose name was given to him pursuant to subsection (2) of section 18 of this Act of the place, time, and date of the meeting.”