The Feilding Star, Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette. Published Daily. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13, 1897. PERJURY.

Feilding Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 164, 13 January 1897, Page 2

The Feilding Star, Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette. Published Daily. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13, 1897. PERJURY.

In the District Court held at Wanganui last Monday the Judge sentenced a man named Brattle to eighteen months imprisonment for perjury. This is perhaps the most common crime committed in the colony, and no i one who has had any experience in our Courts will venture to dispute the statement made by Judge Kettle that hardly a case comes before a Court whic'i is absolute'y free from false swearing. As the Wanganui Herald remarks when commenting on the subject, people go iuto the witness box and either deliberately or recklessly iwrnc to the truth of anything. The litticulty of proving the offence of per|iuy and of bringing it home to the guilty person, owing to the state of tho law, is acknowledged, and this diatiy witnesses know, and take adiHiL.i^e of the knowledge to swear as falsely as tht-y like because of the difficulty of obtaining corroborative evidence against them. Some years ago we wrote strongly on tins subject, beoauSM we recognised then, as we do now, that not only did innocent perhouh sullbr, but the colony was thereby put to a vast amount of needless oxpeuse. We sincerely hope and irust that the prudent severity of Judge Kettle will have the most beaeficiaJ iV-:iUit;>.