BACKING A “STIFF ’UN”

Evening Star, Issue 19789, 13 February 1928, Page 2

BACKING A “STIFF ’UN”

JUDGE'S SPORTING TALK TO OFFENDER NO SUBSTITUTE FOR HARD WORK (Special to the ‘Stab.’] AUCKLAND, February 11. “If you think you are going to get on in this world -without honest hard work, then I can toll you at once that yon are backing ‘a stiff ’un,’ ” said Mr Justice Blair at the. Supreme Court this morning to Doe Griffis, who came up for sentence, having been found guilty of attempted theft from the person at Dcvonport. Mr Reed, for the prisoner, said the latter had not had a very successful career. Since leaving school he had worked in the stables of a horse trainer at Hastings, and had been thrown from a horse, receiving a fractured skull, which kept him in hospital for twelve months. Later he got employment with a baker, but unfortunately the police one day raided the bakery, and found Griffis and others playing “Crown and anchor.” Being right up against it, Griffis had taken to patronising the shows, selling balloons and that sort of thing, and had got in with a class that was not good for him. He was a married man with a wife and a child. The wife was at present living with his mother. The probation officer's report was not good, but counsel thought that in this case probation might be extended on strict conditions, and the prisoner kept under surveillance to make certain that he dissociated himself from undesirable characters. His Honor: “The probation officer’s report is not favorable, but I have further discussed the case with him because I feel, down in the bottom of my heart, that there is still a chance. The reason T want to give you a chance is because T think you have had more than your share of had luck. Probably there is an element of risk in what I propose to do, and it will be said I am allowing my feelings to run away with my head. Still. T propose to take that risk. The world has produced wonderful scientists, but never has there been a scientist who could produce a good honest substitute for hard work. If you think you are going to get on in this world without honest hard work, well, yoa are backing a ‘ stiff ’un.’ You are pinning your hopes on a horse spavinhocked and a cripple. I will give you probation for two years, and there will he a condition that you pay the costs of the prosecution in instalments, as arranged with the probation officer.”