SUPREME COURT.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3762, 23 March 1907, Page 3

SUPREME COURT.

A Foxton Case.

John Finley was brought before his Honour Sir Robert Stout, at Wellington on Wednesday on a chaige that he had been guilty of the breach of an order of the Court made against him in September last. It appeared that he had then been arrested on a charge of having been drunk and of having used obscene language at Foxton. He elected to be tried by a jury, and he was convicted. He was then released, but ordered to come up for sentence if at any time within twelve months from the date of conviction he was found drunk or in a hotel, and he had failed to comply with this order. Mr Kirkcaldie, who now appeared for the prisoner, told his Honour that Finley, after his conviction, went to the Moutoa Estate, which was some distance from Foxton, for something like six months. There he lived a sober and industrious life, and succeeded in saving £SO, with which sum he had negotiated for the purchase of a flaxmill at Ohau, on the West Coast, and where he would be twenty-eight miles distant from the nearest township, and, therefore far away from the temptation which he unfortunately for himself, was unable to resist. Practically throughout his life he had been a victim of intemperance and whenever he came near an hotel the temptation was too strong for him to resist it. This last offence had been committed during a “burst.” He was convicted and fined £x, but unfortunately, he was released from prison before he had got over the effects, of his potations.- The case, Mr Kirkcaldie said, was really one which required medical rather than any other kind of treatment. But if Finlev were given the chance of taking over this flaxmill it would probably have the effect of breaking him away from the drink habit entirely. His Honour, in passing sentence, said he would not send the man to gaol at.present, as it appeared that he had been behaving himself for a considerable number of months. But he would give Finley to understand that if he visited an hotel again, or was found drunk again within the next twelve months, it would be the duty of the police to bring him before the Court, when he would assuredly be imprisoned. Of course, the prisoner must know that his drinking habits could have but one end. It was simply one form of committing suicide, and, in addition to ruining his health and life, it was injuring evervone connected with him. His Honour ordered Finley to pay the railway expenses of the constable who had brought him down from Foxton, and allowed him to leave the Court.