The Meikle Case.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 3615, 3 May 1906, Page 2

The Meikle Case.

Dunedin, May i.

Justices Edwards and Cooper sat to-day as a Royal Commission to enquire into the case of John. James Meikle. Mr A. R. Atkinson (Wellington) appeared for Meikle, and Dr Finlay for the Crown. Mr Atkinson opened the case for Meikle at great length. He said a Commission sitting in 1906 was asked to decide whether a man was rightly convicted in 1886. That was the main question, but there were other questions. If Meikle was not a sheep stealer, and if, as he contended, he was not merely wrongly convicted but innocent, then he was

as grossly wronged a man as could be. His fate had been worse than that of a murder. He had been unjustly robbed of his liberty, reputation, and practically anything that could make life worth living. He had succeeded in securing the conviction of the chief witness against him for perjury, and yet he had • been permitted to go on for eleven years with his great, wrongs unredressed. Counsel then went On to review the evidence given at the hearing of the charge against • Meikle and commented on it, and*'

then referred to the difficulties encountered by Meikle, on release from prison in working up a case against Lambert for perjury.

Counsel had not concluded his address when the Commission adjourned.