The grand jury existed in New Zealand from 1844 to 1961. Its function was to consider bills of indictment preferred against persons committed for trial and to decide whether the evidence against them justified their standing trial. At first the grand jury retained the theoretical power to present an indictment of its own motion, a relic of mediaeval times when the grand jury's purpose was to accuse rather than protect from trial. This power, still a real one in the United States, disappeared in 1893.

From about 1880 the existence of the grand jury as part of the machinery of the criminal law was strongly attacked and as strongly defended. The essential dispute was whether it served a useful function. Although it was said to review badly what the committing Magistrates had done well, most committals for trial were (and are) by lay Justices. Undoubtedly it did sometimes save an innocent man from the ordeal of a trial. In doing this, however, the grand jury almost invariably acted on the suggestion of the Judge. To give Judges a direct power to reject an indictment seemed to offer equal protection. This view prevailed.