HARSH SENTENCES.

Gisborne Times, Volume VIII, Issue 502, 15 August 1902, Page 2

HARSH SENTENCES.

Though usually the general feeling must be antagonistic to any attempts by trade societies or other organisations to influence public feeling against Judges of the Supreme Court, there can be no doubt that the agitation in certain quarters will have many sympathisers when wo hear of a Judge sentencing a small boy to two years’ hard labor. It may bo that it was not really intended for the sentence to be carried out in that way, os Judge Conolly stated that he would make representations to have the boy committed to an industrial home. But the public are not likely to understand any such fine distinction. The fact that arrest“ their attention is that a boy has been sentenced to imprisonment for two years. When such a sentence is compared with terms given by Judge Edwards in far more serious cases, it shows that there is not evenhandedness in dispensing justice. Judge Conolly is deserving of commendation for the stand he has made in regard to some Cl ';minal cases, though he has been condemned by kind-hearted sentimentalists, but there are cases, such as the one under notice, where the sentences have been so harsh as to justify an outcry.