The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. TUESDAY, APRIL 2, 1889. MANUFACTURING CRIMINALS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2100, 2 April 1889, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. TUESDAY, APRIL 2, 1889. MANUFACTURING CRIMINALS

Though it is not often that New Zealand famishes examples of that Bort of ft Justices' justice " which has passed into a proverbial byword m the Old Country, yet there occasionally happens an instance which serves by its exceptional nature to prove the rule of sensible and just decisions. One such it appears to us has recently occurred m the case of the unfortunate youth RudolpfT Kadka. borne months ago, it will be remembered, this young man was arrested on suspicion of incendiarism and committed for trial,bail being refused. He managed to escape without breaking lock, bolt or bar, and the police searched for him m vain. But he voluntarily came forward (presumably because conscious of hia innocence), and surrendered hirasel (for trial, was tried, and acquitted. But m the meantime he had been brought before the Bench and sentenced to imprisonment with hard labor for escaping from custody, burely it would have been fairer to postpone charging him with this offence under the circumstances until after a jury had decided whether he was guilty or innocent of the principal charge, and then, upon bis being acquitted, a very light sentence for taking advantage of the means of escape offered him would certainly have sufficed. As it is we have the anomaly of an innocent man committed to gaol m the first instance merely for safe custody until upon trial he was proved not guilty, and who fulfilled the purpose for which ho was so committed by voluutarily surrendering to take that trial, nevertheless, sentenced to hard labor for a breach of prison regulations. Yet worse remains behind. During the period of this, as we think, unjus incarceration, Radka had behaved m an exemplory manner and had earned by his good conduct a remission of his sentence by 14 days, when it unluckily happened that just a day or two before he would have been entitled to his release, he opened a window of his cell sufficiently to allow him to converso with a young (and possibly pretty) woman who was employed about the yard of the gaol premises, and for this very venial ofMice (for it ffas not pretended that thero was any attempt on Radka's part to escape) ho was again brought before the Bench, sentenced to ten days' broad and water diet, and to forfeit the 14 days' remission of the original sentence which he had earned. The report of tho proceedings states that on hearing this decision tho unfortunate youth burst into tears, and we do not wondor at it ; but we (do wonder that any. Bench of New Zealand Justices should have dealt out such exceedingly hard measure. We quite endorse the opinion of tho " Post " that this sort of procedure is just the way to accomplish " the manuof criminate," and we concur with it iv tQO ?iew that it will not be surprising " if the persistent persecution and the gross injustice which Hadko has suffered, and the opportunities whiclr have been placed m his way for criminal education, lsad to his joinipg the criminal classes when he emergOß from gaol, "If he does so (adds our Wellington contemporary) tho authorities who have combined to drive him from 'honest courses, to brand him a gaol bird, and to treat him as a criminal, although innocent of crime, will be responsible for what happens. Radka's tears ehould burn deep into the souls of all concerned, from the committing Magistrate m tho first instance to the Minister of Justice who refrained from i n £vrfering, when he might have done so, to protect an innocent man from unde- 1 served punishment- and degradation. " ■