EVEN-HANDED JUSTICE.

Evening Star, Issue 3992, 10 December 1875, Page 3

EVEN-HANDED JUSTICE.

To the Editor, your City Police Court report on Monday;, X saw tliat three individuals were sentence*! to three months’ impriso nment each, with h.'krd labor. Let us see what each had done to be punished alike. The first was Ah •Sfangj a Chinaman, charged with having no visible lawful means of support. He was disC ij rg ? d j rom gaol 011 F r id ay last. Being an old offender and an outcast from his country- # the J, P.’s cast him into prison, without /a is having had any chance whatever to seek a living or to retrieve his character, as otn Friday he was discharged from gaol and on Monday tried agam. For all I know, he .might har/’e been put in prison again on the same day. At iyhow, he had not twenty-four legal .hours ro gained his liberty. The second was one I George Wallis, also charged with having no hawful means of suppoit. He had been found sleeping at about five in the morning in a •church not quite finished iu George street. Being sick at the time, and not having any 1 money, be also got three mouths’ hard labor. ;! The third—Thomas Langlands—was charged' !, With passing a valueless cheque, he having 1 bought a suit of clothes, hat, &c., amounting to L 3 7s fid, and asking for a blank cheque book, then and there filled in the sum, signed it, and walked away with his goods. No doubt he was thanked for his custom and payment, .r.lsis man got als •> three months. Crime, sickmoss, and want of work all treated alike ! Is this even-handed justice ?—I am, &c. _ Question, Dunedin, December 7.