The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 19,1887. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1460, 19 January 1887, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 19, 1887. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.

Although we are regretfully constrained to admit that it is not yet practicable to abolish the penalty ot death as the punishment of wilful murder, and while we concede that m certain conditions of society, such as uuhappily obtain m New South Wales, the same extreme penalty may be necessary for the repression of another description of crime, we unhesitatingly affirm that the horrible scenes which are only too frequently witnessed at executions are a disgrace to the civilisation of the age m which we live. A more harrowing story of bungling than that which is told of the recent execution at Darlinghurst we have seldom read, though there have been frequent instances of the same kind, and some every whit as painful. It goes without saying that if the life of a criminal Is to be taken as the law's forfeit it should be taken swiftly and suddenly, and thus as mercifully as is possible, and a process of slowly torturing to death is abhorrent to every rightminded person. Such a scene as that at Darlinghurst the other day is more. fitly described as a butchery than as an execution, and makes one's blood run cold to read of it. Still it is necessary that it should have the widest possible publicity as only m that way can the public feeling be sufficiently aroused to the necessity of something being done to prevent the repetition of such painful and disgraceful spectacles. For be it remembered that what happened m New South Wales comparatively yesterday may happen m New Zealand to-morrow, the very method of our death penalty affording endless opportunities for blundering. No doubt if the rope be of the right kind and perfectly adjusted, and the drop sufficient, death by hanging is as speedy and painless as almost any method which can be chosen, but nervousness on the part of the executioner, an unnoticed shifting of the head m the noose by the condemned, a badly-tied knot, or any one of a dozen other circumstances, may produce a horrible scene. Surely it is high time that some consideration were given to the possibility of obviating ail this and ensuing the, as nearly as possible, instantaneous death of the victim. The guillotine even is not alalways reliable, as witness what occurred at an execution m New Caledonia recently, when the knife got jammed m the fatal beam m some way and the partially severed head of a criminal had to be chopped i off by the executioner, and some more certain method than either the rope or the knife should be chosen. Such a method is that adopted, we think, m Spain, where the condemned person is seate.4 m a chair, specially constructed for the purpose," and hjs neck having been enclosed in.a brass collar, a spring is pressed and a sharp steel point penetrates the spinal column causing instantaneous death. But the suggestion which has repeatedly been made that the potent power of electricity should be called m, and that death should be inflicted by a shock from an electric battery is, it seems to us, a still better one, and supplies all the desiderata of the case. Swift, unerring, and painless, we can imagine no better method of carrying out the last dread penalty of the law, and it is heartily to be hoped that this or something equally humane will, be speedily brought into use. Such a scene as that at Darlinghurst ought never to be again possible.