THE TIMARU RIOTERS.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2151, 17 January 1881, Page 3

THE TIMARU RIOTERS.

[Br Tmhobaph.] TIMARU, January 15. The District Court this morning, before Judge Ward, was densely packed, on account of judgment being given in the rioters’ cases. Mr White, the Crown prosecutor, and Mr Stout, for defendants, were present. Messrs Wakefield and Turnbull, Archer, J.P., and others, including Inspector Pender, gave O’Drisooll the very highest character. The other men also received good characters. In addressing the prisoners his Honor said : Prisoners at the bar, after a long and patient trial, you were convicted ten months ago of a most serious riot. On points then raised by your counsel, I had little doubt about there being no appeal from my decision. I reserved them, at his earnest request, for the consideration of the Court above, and they have at length been finally decided against you It is, therefore, now my duty to give judgment in this case, but in doing so it is also my duty to take into consideration the good character hitherto borne by you, the long suspense you have suffered, and, lastly, the fact that, thanks to the firmness and prudence of the Resident Magistrate and Inspector of Police, but little actual violence took place at the time of the commission of the offence on the proposed Orange procession. It is to be regretted that the Legislature has not deemed fit to prohibit both green and orange processions, amounting as they do to so many provocations to break the peace ; but while such processions remain legal those who join them are entitled to the protection of the law. You carried your flags in defiance of the Orangemen on former occasions, and you must have known that they would return the compliment. But they kept within the law. You have broken it, and have to pay the penalty. Yet it may be well to give a word of warning to both sides. I know of no British colony where Irish, without the distinction of party, meet a more cordial welcome than in New Zealand, and no men deserve it more at our hands or make better colonists. We have all equal rights ; we have also all certain duties, and the first duty of the Queen’s lieges is to keep the peace. Therefore, while we meet our Irish fellow settlors with frank cordiality we meet Irish faction fights with prompt repression. Let both parties understand this—that they will not be allowed to fight out Irish feuds on New Zealand soil. Doubtless, as jour counsel urged at the trial, these feuds are legacies of hundreds of years of misgovernment, and of outrage and spoliation on both sides, and though the penal laws that disgraced the Statute Book of England have long since been swept away, yet the evil that they did lives after them. No country can show a more brilliant roll of warriors and statesmen than Ireland ; no country can boast of a finer race of men, and in no country in Europe are life and property so' insecure at the present time. We may well beware of importing among us the intestine broils that have brought Ireland to this pass. With respect to five of the prisoners, taking into consideration the time that has elapsed since the offence was committed, and the fact that an Orange procession has taken place since in peace, I think the ends of justice will be satisfied by their being bound over to appear and receive judgment if called upon. But with respect to O’Drisooll the case is different. Ho has been the head and front of this offending. The riot was plotted at his house, he wrote to summon the Waimate contingent, and bis house was the rendezvous of the rioters on the day that the offence was committed. Doubtless he little know the danger he was running. The rule of the law is that he who in any wise commands or counsels another to commit an unlawful act is an accessory to all that ensues upon its commission. Had blood been shed on the day of the riot the law would surely have required vindication at bis hands. But during the ten years I have been in Timaru I have heard nothing previous to the date of the riot of him or his family that was not to their credit, and I will not send a man of his high character to herd with felons in gaol. His conduct in this case has cost the colony a large sum of money, and a portion of that, at all events, he shall pay as a fine. The sentence of the Court upon you, O’Driscoll, is that you pay a fine of £IOO to the Queen. The other five prisoners will be bound over in their recognisances of £IOO each, to appear and receive sentence if called upon. After the recognisances had been signed, Judge Ward, addressing the !prisoners, said. “ Sin no more, lest a worse thing come to thee.”