No Black Cat.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 3 July 1914, Page 2

No Black Cat.

HAWKINS IN A MELTEXG MOOD

Although his severity at' times led to his being termed the "hangingjudge," there were occasions when the late Baron Brampton (Mr. Justice Hawkins) ciispl,.. i considerable feeling while on the Bench. On one occasion a poor woman was tried before him in a circuit town for murdering her babe. The woman, oppressed with a sense of shame, determined to drown her week-old child, and herself at the same time. The water, however was not deep enough to drown her : she was accordingly put upon her trial for murder, and was eventually convicted. Hawkins was about to pronounce the inevitable sentence of death—much against his will—when the pompous old High Sheriff, all importance and dignity, said :— "My lord, are you not going to put on the black cap ?" "No," replied the judge. " I'm not. I do not intend the poor creature to be hanged, and I am not going to frighten her to death." Addressing her by name, he said : "Don't pay any attention to what lam going to read. No harm will be done to you. lam sure you did not. know, in your great sorrow and trouble, what you were doing, and 1 will take care to represent your case 'so that nothing will harm you in the way of punishment." He then mumbled over the words of the death sentence so that the poor woman shouldn't hear them. There was another occasion, says "Anecdotes of the Bench and Bar," when Mr. Justice Hawkins, as he then was, had to test whether a boy witness understood the nature of an oath. In the course of his questions he said to the boy : "if I were to say you had an orange in your mouth, would that be the truth ?" "No ;it would be a lie." "And if I said you had one in your hand ?" "That would be another lie." "And if I promised you a bag of oranges, and then didn't give them to you, what would that be ?" "That would be a lie." "And if I did giye them to you?" "That would be the truth." "Very well, I will." And he did.

There are two solid silver teatables at Windsor Castle. 1896.