LAW' REPORTS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1606, 25 November 1912, Page 3

LAW' REPORTS.

• SUPREME COURT. TWO PRISONERS SENTENCED. REFORMATIVE TREATMENT. Two prisoners, who had pleaded guilty to offences in the Lower Court, were brought up for sentence before the Chief Justice (Sir Robert Stout) in tho Supreme Court oil Saturday morning. Mr. H. H. Ostler, of the Cr,own Law Office, represented the. Crown. 1 A young man, named Thomas Dickson, was first placed in tlie dock. He had pleaded guilty at Ormondyille to a charge of detaining postal packets and to four charges of theft. Mr. T. l'oung, who appeared for the prisoner, stated that until three years ago His client had borne a clean record. He had then of necessity had to stay at a hotel, and during the past twelve months ho had given way to drink, and was always in a muddled state. On a charge of stealing ,£lB, Dickson had already been sentenced by a magistrate to twelve months' reformative treatment. Counsel suggested that his Honour should impose a sentence to run concurrently with that the prisoner was already serving. His Honour (to the prisoner): There is no doubt whatever that your fall has been brought about by drink, and you seem to be now suffering from tho effects of drink. You have a, great number of charges against yon. Hero there axe five. I think the best thing to do with you is to give you six months' additional reformative treatment. It will give the Prison Board a chanco to reform you. If you apply for release after some months you may be admitted to probation. His Honour added that he had adopted this course in the prisoner's own interests. Very few people, unless they possessed strong will power, were able to get over the habit of indulging in alcohol, which . was responsible for more than half the crime in the Dominion, and which his Honour supposed would continue to be until our people recognised that taking alcohol was a crime against the race.

\ REFORMATIVE TREATMENT. FOR THREE TEARS. When asked if ho had anything to say as to why sentence of the Court should not be_ passed upon him on two charges of theft, Harold Kctterer handed up a written statement. This, said his Honour,,wos another case of drinking. On account of a number of previous convictions for theft, the prisoner had rendered himself liable to be declared an habitual criminal. On this occasion, however, his Honour would not take tho extreme 'course, but would. sentence the prisoner to a long term of reformative treatment—threo years in order that the Prisons Board would have some power over him in the direction of reforming him.