HE WAS A FOOL

NZ Truth, Issue 59, 4 August 1906, Page 4

HE WAS A FOOL

AND WAS LENIENTLY TREATED,

But the Chief Justice Says He's Got Stacks of Company.

It js a bit hard on an individual to have to stand m a criminal dock and to be told by all and sundry that he is a darned fool, who never will know any better, but is is harder still tq feel one deserves ;t. Such was the plight m which Patrick Kearney found himself last Monday at the Criminal Court, where he was brought up before the Chief Justice to show cause why he should not go to gaol over some hanky-panky business about; a valueless cheque. Kearney is not. the only individual who has been called a fool, and proved one m order to avoid the unpleasant aftermath of his foolishness, as there is a vivid recollection of a lawyer being saved from being wiped off the roll, because a Bench of austere judges had it-prov-ed to their satisfaction that the lawyer was ma ; d. To return to Kearney, however. His is a six-footer and LOOKS A FOOL. He pleaded guilty at the G-reytown Magistrate's Court, m which town, the fool got m his fine work and when ho came before"' the Chief Jusr tice last Monday, Mr Wilford, who represented the fool, tried to "do the impossible, viz., to have Kearney allowed to reverse his Magistrate's Court plea. It was no I; allowed, however, so Mr Wilford pointed out what extenuating circumstances there were, namely, that Kearney was a fool, and that after he had uttered the valueless cheiriue he had sent the money to the individual whom he had imposed upon. Already he had been previourfy convicted of similar offences and his mother was always chasing him around the country LOOKING AFTER HIM. The Chief .Justice dealt very leniently with the fool. He, however, pointed out to Kearney that his was a crime which was very common, and also that he was not alone m his folly. Nine-tenths of the criminals m gaol were fools. Instead of working hard and saving some of their wages, they found time to gamble on the racecourse and tote and spent a lot of time m public houses ; and m nine cases out of ten the position the prisoner found himself m was the result. A sentence of four months' imprisonment waa passed.