Truth A PAMPERED CRIMINAL

NZ Truth, Issue 140, 22 February 1908, Page 4

Truth

A PAMPERED CRIMINAL

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1908.

Published , Every Saturday morning at. Luke's Lane (off Mannersstreet), Wellington, N.z. SUBSORIPTipN (IN ADVANCE), 13S. •>■■•■• ' , .PER ANNUM. ,

' "Tfuth" desires to enter an . emphatic protest against the. favoredconvict treatment that is extended to Henry. Stratton Izard, the thieving Wairarapa solicitor, who is now .undergoing a sentence 1 of five years' imprisonment ostensibly for, ,the < larceny of trust moneys • amounting to many thousands of pounds, but really (according to Mr Justice Cooper) be-, cause he is "a disgrace to, an /honorable profession" : m. other, words, Izard didn't do. his sharking m a"legitimate manner. ,• From the very commencement of the Izard debacle, distinguished memibers.of the, honorable Costs profession, exerted themselves to hide from, the censorious eye of ■■'■am. outraged public the full extent of an erring, shark's^ deplorable sharking, -and -even „,thbse solicitors who appeared m the subsequent proceedings for .ruined victims exhibited a deferential consideration ,for the wholesale plunderer. The public and ■ the press were excluded from the; bankruptcy meetmps, and the robber was carefully indicted, up m Master-r ton, where he wasn't generally known and where I<he friends of his: victims would be \iwa'ble to make insulting remarks to him, or view his humiliation and bitterness of smvit. Bail,, which is refused to ordinary lawbreakers of note, was permitted Izard, who was wrapped m metaphorical cotton wool throughout the proceedings, and was subjected to no unkind interrogations. Even the Judge didn't regard him' m the. light of a common thief, 'but as "a- disgrace to an- horiorajble profession," ami his shocked Honor gave expression, to the pain -he' felt m ' sentencitig this fleecer of the widow 1 and the orphan to. imprisonment for five years. Ferris, Hamilton and Sinclair, „ . whose aggregate robberies brquftht.th'ein less than a % hundred pornidSTT-whereas ' laard's defalcations rail well into £25,000— were sentenced 'by the same Judge to fifteen years impiisonmeh't, and his indignant Honbr spoke to them with, severity \ar bout the heiribusness of their offem ces. Yet' .these burglars are less to be desprised than the Wairarapa L'cthario, who took £15,000 of his beloved half-caste ward's money and deprived others of the earnings of a lifetime. The Wellington William Sykeses exhibited some physical courr age m securing the booty ; they may even have risked their lives, and a rude, sort of adm«i ration for brute fearlessness might be felt for the trio by the multitude, but Izard betrayed a trust, arid the magnitude of his steal by- cbtnparison with that ; of Ferris, Hamilton and Sinclair should have entitled Mm to a life sentence, if his fellow robbers merited fifteen years. . ''■..-..,

■"Truth! 1 'has a recollection that it protested at the time against the apotheosis, by a judge, of the "Honorable profession," arid it reiterates that protest while pertinently pointing out that ' when a learned judge regards the Costs trade as a sort of holy of holies; there is a danger that he. will differentiate between shark criminals of that trade and mere common criminals, as we have shpwn has been done m a specific instance. When a thieving solicitor is being tried,, before a Judge \^ho has also been a solicitor, the procedure would be imore satisfactory if the Judge had formerly been a bootmaker or a butcher or a milkman, and would not then be too wrapped up m. the disgrace sustained by an "honorable profession" to measure up the gravity of .the actual robberies : always supposing that if the raWber were a bootmaker or a butcher or a milkman, the honorable Judge must needs have oneo 1 been a plumber, or a solicitor, or a sanitary inspector, to free himself from the appalling influence of disgrace to the honorable professions of 'bootmaker, or 'butcher, or milk man. Having gaoled Izard one might be left with the reasonable assumption that he would expiate his oftence, without favor, much m the manner that ordinary burglars put m time ; but even m custody, we learn, Izard is no common gaol-bird, but a person to whom unexampled deference is shown. We know not if influence flkl it, but the Wsiirarnpa pirate was despatched to the tree-plant-ing parad-.se of Marlboro', where tlm home comforts surpass the sweatwon fnrc nf the poor, anA where the prisoners arc warned that they will be locked un if they do not get

home by a reasonable- hour. "Truth" has no fault to find with the healthy, humane treatment of criminals which recovers and saves to them their self? respect, but it does want to know why Izard should be treated differently ' to other criminals. w At the treoplanting depot, two, three, or a nunw ber of convicts herd together at night, 'but tlic gaoled solicitor's sense of reflnemettt would be unduly outraged by such disgusting contact with his brother robbers, and a single apartment was found for him m the Vicinity of the dook-house and his duties were confined I>o the culinary department m compassion for his deficatc sensibilities. His fare, too, is reputed to be extravagantly tasty and lie is the only "Mr." m the establishment. ■> ' « • The backwash of H.S.l.'s gigantic snavel carried a civil case into Wellington Supreme Court the other day, when the Bench was .asked to say whether a person named Feast or an individual named Judd sHould bear the. loss of £700 stolen by Izard. That pampered person was called as a witness and was treated with astounding Obsequiousness by all concerned. For fear that the puSH lie might note that he hadn't shaved recently, the legal, coin-shifter was examined m a private room, but prior to the operation the convict witness was discovered to .be lost. Nobody knew where Izard was. Learned counsel spoke to each other m agitated whispers on the subject^and even rang up the gaol governor. ;That functionary replied that he had, duly despatched • the tree-planter to the Court 1 , that . morning, and surmised that he must be somewhere on the premises. An outsider overheard something of this and remarked, qfuitß loud; "Why, he's sitting m the witnesses' room with a warder!" Assembled counsel exchanged glances of horror. In the publio witnesses' room ! ■ Izard' s gaol" crop would have been observed.,' after all !■ When the Court adjourned to the privacy of the room mentioned the press reporters followed, whereat the assemlbled barristers raised their eye-brows. Bell. K.C., didn't make 1 any formal protests, 'but he spoke to the reporters about the uridesirableness of their presence, and the reporters took no notice, b-ut wrote down the proceedings. If Hamilton, Ferris, or Sinclair were required to give evidence m a case before the .Supreme Court, there would be none of this sort of foolery. They would he dragged into open "Court and bulldnsed by some unspeakable lawyer, who would.-ques-tion t'hein .with frankness and brutality about, their past misdeeds. In the case of laard unpleasant questions of this description ■ were barred, and ."Truth," m the name of justice desires to know, why ? This paper has endeavored, m vain, to find a solution of the problem which embraces the extreme kindness extended to convict Izard, and with firmiriess and in sul tine: iteration, we again ask the. authorities, WHY?"