THE LAWBREAKERS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2903, 16 October 1916, Page 6

THE LAWBREAKERS

HUMAN PROBLEMS

CHIEF JUSTICE ON LIQUOR

DRINK AND-THE SOLDIER

Sentencing prisoners to imprisonment is always a grim business, and generally the proceedings are totally uninteresting. It has long been the practice of the Chief Justice to devote Saturday mornings to the dealing with those convicted and due to receive the sentence of tlie Supremo Court. A small number of pri6oners had been awaiting sentence here, and, pursuing lis custom, His 'Honour dealt with them on Saturday. But it was not tho ordinary type of criminal who was presented in the dock. It was a rather perplexing, and, in its way, interesting, array. Ono cannot say that the ordinary law-breaker was 1 not present, but there was also tho person who set fire to buildings just to see a blaze; the soldier whom strong drink led,alone tho road to trouble; the man, who did wrongs, but whose s«nse of responsibility was 60 strange that he also accused _ himself of wrongs ho did' not commit; tho lad who had committed no crime, but had neglected through over-' work to fulfil a duty; and so on. *

Should Soldiers Be Prohibited? First came John Robert' Watkins, who had pleaded guilty to three charges of false pretences. Ho had neon in trouble beforo, and his record was bcfor tho Chief Justice. His Honour: What caused your lapse this time? You did not do it for fowl or clothing, and I notice that you wero in tho Seventeenth Reinforcements. Watkins: I was drinking. . . ■ . I came back from Canada' to join the Reinforcements here.

"Well," said His Honour, "this is ono of the things that result from drinking. And instead of the Defence authorities prohibiting all soldiers from drinking (as I think they ought,to do), they permit drinking. If our nation is to be efficient, and our soldiers aro to be efficient, liquor is certainly not the thing to make them officiont with. This ought to bo a lesson to tho Defonco Department as an/ example of what happens to weak men. In my opinion, no soldier ought to be allowed to taste liquor. They think the liberty of England is a great thing, but tho liberty of tho drink is more important." Watkins. was sentenced to a year's imprisonment, and was declared an habitual criminal. Caused Fires to See Blazes, Wallace Stanley Martin,- a mero lad, stood convicted of five charges of arson. He had been firing buildings, and His Honour remarked that if Tie had not been detected' he would have burnt the town. , His Honour said he had studied tho boy's, case very carefully. It was plain thafciMartiu was not normal. Ho «ct fire to things in order to sec a blaze; not with criminal intent. A form of imprisonment would not bo. his sentence He could not be left in the town, and it would bo well to get him away to the' country. Five 'years' reformative treatment would bo tho form of his sentence. Concerning Theft. Charles Thompson, alias Tliackwell, was sonteuced to two years' imprisonment with hard labour for thoft. His Honour remarked that tho prisoner had beon in tioublo in W'aihi, Jhames, New Plymouth, and Danhevirko. He seemed to think ho could do as he pleased, and his conduct had been bad generally. Albert Westrupp, "Fritz Kciersen, and John Carlson, appeared respecting charges of theft, but owing to iuformality in the proceedings in the lower Court they were discharged. They were immediately rearrested, and are to come before tho Magistrate's Court to-day. A Perplexing Caso. For breaking, entering, and theft, Vivian John Wallace wa s placed in tho dock, and Mr. H. F.'O.'Leary, appearing in his interests, outlined lu the Court the accused's unfortunate career.

Counsel told the Court that Wallace was twenty-two years of age.' -Ho cafflo of a thoroughly respectable Wellington family, and he presented a remarkable problem as to the best courss'to take in dealing with him. At the age of seven years he had met witfr' a bad accident to his head, and. another accident a few years later .had reopened the old wound and accentuated the trouble. These mishaps had affected lu's mental condition, and though ho had remained at school till he was fourteen years of > age he had not progressed past the standard. Ho lacked sense of his responsibilities so much that he recently informed the polico that he had committed a, certain theft, whereas it was subsequently proved beyond doubt that someone else was the thief. He was now twentytwo years of age, and his father found him becoming more and more heedless of warning, and less and less under control.

His Honour agreed that the case wan perplexing. He would not send accused to gaol, but sentence him to four years' reformative treatment, with the idea of having him sent to the planting camp at Waipa.

A Delicate Youth Overworked, A Hawera boy, Atliol Frasor M'Lean, was brought forward for having secreted postal packets. • Mr. P. S. Macasseyi of the Crown Law Office, read a report stating that M'Lean had been employed in the postal service at Hawera, and that his conduct off duty was good. His work was chiefly letter-carrying; ho had to walk about fourteen miles a day, and he was not very strong. If the Court granted him probation, his father would tako him to the country.

"It seems to me," said His Honour, "that tho work he was called upon to do was too heavy for him. and'he simply left these letters undelivered. It is not a caso of theft, but of neglect of an important duty. ... I shall give him probation for two years, on condition his father looks after him."