APPLICANT FOR IMPRISONMENT

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1450, 7 January 1887, Page 2

APPLICANT FOR IMPRISONMENT

A .'INSULAR CASE.

At the R.M Court this morliing, before Mr .K. Ale m. J.l*., aud M.ijor S e-^ard, J.t*., was witueuced theatr n»e spectacle of a man pleading earn st!y to h* committed to guol m pref-rence to being sunt to the Old Men's Home. Tm.» man, Tnomas Glenn by name, is stone-blind, but appears to be possesßo > of a full share of intelligence, He was formerly an inmate of the Home, but Home time ngo ran away, and when the police desired him to return he flatly refuse i to do so, and as ho had no means of subsistence, there was no alternative but to bring him before the Court. At Gle- n's earnest Request, Me Baddeley, R.M, though reluctaut to deal thus with a blind man, committed him to gaol for two months*. This term expired this morning, and the authorities m Lyttelton Gaol, m accordance with the practice of the Depaitmeut, returned him to the place from * hence he had been committed. Immediately on the arrival' of the express train Glenn made hia way to the Court, and made an application to the presiding Justices to send him back to gaol. He doggedly refused to again go to the Old vien's Home, hi* antiyathy to that institution lying m the fact that the other inmates, s > he alleged, would allow him no pe^ce. The Bench, pointed out that there was no charge laid aga ; n«t Glenn, and therefore they could do nothing m the matter. The man paw no n-Hssm why ho should not be committed on the same charge as beforo viz, that of having no visible lawful moons of support On Sergeant Felton retnarkin t' at it was 1 uuentahle that a blind man should be sent lo gaol, Glei.n promptly interjected that there was nothin > lamentable whatever m the circumstance — he preferred gaol to going back to the Old Men's Home. Sergeant Fe'ton then pointed out to Glenn, who was persistent m his appeals to the Bench to commit him) that if, m a3cordnnce with iiis wish a charge wore laid against him, he would be liable to get a long term of imprisonment, for this time he would bo charged with being "a roguo and vaga ond." Upon Ih s information being imparted to hini, Glenn's fare actually seemed to > rightr n but he replied m his usual stolid voico thit the longer he wus sen- to gaol for the better he would like it, and, as for thy charge upon which he was sent there, that did nob trouble him m the slightest degree.

Ultimately a charge was laid, and the man sent up for bi'x months, to do such labor aa hp was fit for When sentencing him, the Bench remarked that the Legis lature had never comtemplated cas°s of this s^rt, and they thought it would he desirable that Sergeant Felton, as the police officer m charge of this district, should draw up a report, an ? forward it to the head of his department. — Sergeant Felt n promised to make a report ou the matter through the Bench.

We understand that during the tima Glenn was m gaol h s conduct was most exemplary, *nd he willingly performed any kind of labor wh eh he was fit to undertake, such as pinking oakum Taken m all its bearings, the case is one of the moat remarkable that has over come before the Ashburton Court