GAOLED WRONGLY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 904, 25 August 1910, Page 8

GAOLED WRONGLY.

MAGISTRATE'S ACT ' ANNULLED. (Br ' rsleffraDh-Preaa Assoclatloii.i Giiristchurch, August 24. ..The casi! of James Boyd,- who was sentenced at Kaikoura by Mr. Florauce, S.Mi,.'to tliree months' imprisonment- for a breach of a- prohibition order 'came before Mr. Justice Sim in tho Supreme Court to-day. Mr. Hunt, on : behalf of Boyd,, applied for a rule absolute, on a writ of habeas ■ corpus. Ilio chief gaoler a'i . Lyttolton (Mr. Ironside) appeared in person and produced the warrant on which he held Boyd. . ■ . , . !: His Honour: AVhat position do yon tako up, Mr. • Ironside ? Mr.' Ironside, replied that ho did not take up any position at. all. Ho had wanted 'the Crown solicitor to bo present, and he had also telegraphed to the Justice Department, but he had got no reply. Ho had sent a wire at 11 a.m., and the caso might stand.over for a little while when there might be a / reply. .-. ■ . '. Mr. Hunt said that ho had told Mr. Stringer on the-previous day that the case was to'come on. :. . His Honour remarked that there seemed to be no doubt that the conviction was bad, arid'therefore the , warrant- based on' it was bad. .: Mr. Ironside: I was ,not. to know that. '■■' , His Honour said thati when a warrant, properly drawn and signed, came to Mr. Ironside he had no option butto obey it. There was no question of his taking it on himself to decide whether the warrant was good.or bad. His Honour added that ho did not think that ho should postpone the case. ,He did not think that there ;was anything to argue about it. It was a question of a man's liberty.; If the ■man had been at large-it would . not matter much, but. if the case were hold. over, it meant keeping him in prison longer than he'ought to be... In fact ho o'ught not to, have been imprisoned at all. -; ■■;■■"-.. -'.': . . , ■ • Mr. Ironside said that, ■in that case, he would ■ not ask for the matter to stand over.. . •'..-. His Honour remarked that Mr. Ironside was' right in taking up that posi:' tjon. After referring to clauses of thb ■Licensing Act and Justices .of .Peace Act,', bearing on the matter; his Honour said that'it seemed to him quite" clear that a conviction in this case was jnot..-justified'by' tho Statute . under which the magistrate was- acting. It seemed qiiite clear that any person committing the offencoof which the.prisoner in this case was convicted ; must,-' : in.the first- instance be .fined,, and im;prisonment could, only be imposed . in 'default of payment of the-fine.impos-ed in tho first instance. It was clear, therefore, that the "conviction on which the warrant was based was-bad, and tho warrant also, was bad.. It seemed 'unforunate that >tlip , magistrate who convicted Boyd did not take the trouble to : read the'seefcion under which he was" proceeding before making the order. Ail order would be made for. pris-. oner's immediate-release. / . , :