MISTAKEN LENIENCY.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 610, 13 September 1909, Page 9

MISTAKEN LENIENCY.

' Sir,—Tho-'sentence that '.his Honour Judgo Edwards passed upon Birkett, tram conductor at-. Auckland, may appear to ; many of. your Waders humane . as.-speciillly,,' guarding .hini against. contamination whilst in gaol,. through .'not imposing hard labour. If the. samo rules hpply as regards prison regulations as thoy did .ttnder Lioutenant-Colonel Hume's': admini3tra-. tiou, and.in passing a more inhumane and out-of-datd system could not be enforced, a system )vith.,little. difiereneo io the old stylo that so. dc'graded and brow-beat an. .unfortunate wrotch thafcjjo became bound by mind and instinct a habitual criminal, then a sentence.of imprisonment (.without-hard labour means .ono hour's, ;oxore|so in the morning and bno.iii tho afternoon, the rest ot tlw time being locked up in his coll. ■ No notices or information aro exhibited on the prison walls or imparted to tho prisoner of what'constitutes by prison rules imprisonment without htird'lnbour. Jll ho knows is that ho gets rations just sufficient to keep him alive, and with tho lu'tiny hours of isolation ho goos through a holl that -is brutal in the extreme. To-be ablo to work, tljoreby relieving the tension on his mind, he-would look upon as a God-send. It'is to be hoped that tho gaoler in Wellington. is :an official who has a high standard in cxercising his', authority, and with the .more cnlightoncd treatment of prisoners that the! public, are led to'.believe is in force, the curscd inhumanity that'was in vogue is abolished. Every incident of life' has some ray of congratulation, and; it is' 'somdthing to bd thahliful' for that ho will not know-tlio Wanganui Gaol as it once (.was: To the lay mind' tho^"reasoning" of judges seems incomprehensible, and credit cannot be given to; them for their sound judgment, as thoy disagree amongst' themselves as widely as- clergymen, .• and they aro so'conscious of the fact that they shudder and timidly, draw, back if Asked to go tho' slightest ..degrc'f>; from the beaten track; and ask for if every c'aso was on all fours ivith another, as if a formula of law, etc., could : bo absolutely fixed. But tho judges go. on the prihciplo because their' predecessors wore fops and-frilled shirts and ' thundered'-law.: Any argument Or circumstance that-has. not the legal mustv smoll, of fop and frilled 6hirt is not law.- Ldt us hope the day is coming when 'justice will be administered on the caso in iand, and-, all. legal false roads blocked. ' We nhould havo throo persons, on the Bench to trv ,c!\ses» a. judge and, two high gontlomen of repute just- to keep him on the common-sense road.—l-am, , WAN( . ANTJI . Im ' September . 10. ■