BAY OF PLENTY BEACON Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. MONDAY, AUGUST 14, 1950 RESTORATION OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 15, Issue 82, 14 August 1950, Page 4

BAY OF PLENTY BEACON Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. MONDAY, AUGUST 14, 1950 RESTORATION OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

The importance attached by the Government to its legislation intended to effect the reintroduction of capital punishment is reflected in its proposal that the Opposition should help consider the matter in committee. The Opposition should by now agree that the doing-away with the death penaity was a mistake. While there may be something to be said for the argument that the taking of one life does not compensate for the loss of another, the fact remains that, with no death penalty as a deterrent, murders, often brutal in the extreme, have increased to a startling number. It might not be intended that capital punishment should be applied to every person convicted of murder but, while the possibility of it exists, then'” murders may be fewer. Even if the death penalty were used only in the worst cases, a worth-while purpose would be served. There would always, in any case, be the legal precaution that a death sentence must be confirmed by the Governor-General before being administered.