SUPREME COURT

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2636, 6 December 1915, Page 8

SUPREME COURT

FOUR PRISONERS SENTENCED CARGO BROACHING His Honour Mr. Justice Hoslting presided at a sitting of the Supreme Court on Saturday, when four prisoners were sentenced for crimes to which they had pleaded guilty in the lower court. Mr. V. K. Meredith, of tho Crown Law Uttice, represented the Crown, A Trivial case. ( Andrew Thomas Thomson (forgerv at Kumeroa, near Woodville) was represented by Mr. T. M. Wilt'ord. Counsel pointed out that the offence was a trivial one (no money being involved), and might easily have been dealt with side the Court. His Honour accepted the view that the case might have been met by a fine in the loiver_court, and he now imposed a hno of £5, allowing the accused five days in which to find the money.

.! An Old Offender. ; _ Edward Thomas Hughes, an old of- : fender (forgsry and uttering), handed "i. a.written statement, in which he attnbuted his lapse to drink, and asked J for a chance in order that he might serve his country at the front. . His Honour considered that the prisoner had already been given ample op- . portunity to lead an honest life if his ini tention had been in that direction. He J would be declared a habitual criminal and he sentenced to two years' imprisonment with hard labour. , "Did Not Want to be a Shirker." i ■A young man named Ernest Peter Anderson (forgery, and uttering) asked for probation in' order that he might go to tile front and so avoid'being forever branded as a shirker. _ His Honour declined to grant probation as the report of the probation officer was not favourable'. The crimeß showed method, and the prisoner's general character appeared to have been bad. He would! be tcntenced to 18 months' imprisonment for /'reformative purposes. v Cargo Broaching. There were some previous convictions against a mai'ried man named Alberi Neilson, who had pleaded guilty t< stealing some articles of small valm from the New Zealand Shipping Company's steamer .lluapehu. Mr. H. F O'Leary appeared for the prisoner; anc pointed out that the goods which tlu prisoner had taken were not of a kind that would be of any personal benefit. Moreover, Neilson said that they were lying loose in the hold and that he picked them up from-.there. His Honour, in passing sentence, eaid that the offence amounted to a breach of trust. Cargo broaching, as shown by the evidence m this and other cases, was rampant, and the Court had taken a serious view of it. Dishonest men like the prisoner cast a slur upon honest men who earned their living on the waterfront. . The sentence of the Court would be 18 months' imprisonI ment with hard labour. h