The Mount Rennie Outrage

Feilding Star, Volume VIII, Issue 76, 30 December 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

The Mount Rennie Outrage

Niue lads, ranging from .eaxtoeu. to \ tfcwenty years of age, havrt been found ■guilty of this horrible and sensational terime, and have been sentenced to.f ideath. It is onlj in . Nevr South Wales and Tasmania that this .sen-, tence could Jbar© been awarded, and, ' even if the circumstances demanded ;so terrible an example, the manner* ; and tone of the Judge in passing ■sentence was such as to deserve the .censure of all humane men. There ican be no question that a good deal; of panic exists, in this pity ia consequence of the recurrence of ouirages ,oi the same kindj but it is ganerally isupposed ib.at the Judges .of the Court Are not iikely *o give way to a prewuiie of this sort. In tfhis case, however, while the jury recommended the prisoners to mercy on 4he ground of their extreme yonth— .a reasonable ground at least in half ithe caees — the Judge denounced, in language that was almost faroiious, ! ithe idea of auy mercy being shown. '.The Press &aq, for the most jaari, ; itaicen up the same attitude ; and very! <peesibly, unless the Governor should . iimseii interfere in favour of a few: <of the youmgest, the whole nine will ; ?be executed. Moderate persons have i fcaiUed attention t© the iact that in aj jformer case of a siufllaT «haracte tie . : same Tudge was equally urgent for 3he .execution of a .number oi con«aemn«4 persons ; and yet five. mouths jatter the Governor had commuted, the sentence to penal servitude, this very Judjje .was obliged reluctantly to confseart te three of them being liberated, &s having been proved to have had aiotthltig Ac -i» <witk «t. Even such $&«&!, wMle.they are .not denied fai^i ffco aaalce any impression ■upon the jpejmlar feeliag, which is no. doubt partly stirred up by ,the coriTiction tihtit such crimes are not only a meniace^ tto -society, but a personal disgrace to jj^e<eommunity at large..