SPECIAL TELEGRAMS

Oamaru Mail, Volume II, Issue 585, 19 March 1878, Page 2

SPECIAL TELEGRAMS

(FROM OUR OWN" CORRESPONDENT.) * DUNEDIN. March 19. The verdict of the jury in the case Regina v. Jones has given general satisfaction, the accused receiving congratulations from all quarters. Mr. Whitaker, rhe astute lawyer, who advised the Crown Prosecutor throughout the trial, as was the case in the House of Representatives, allowed himself to be carried away by spitefulness, which showed itself in the ohstructiveness of Mr. Haggitt from the commencement to the end of the trial. The idea of the prosecution was to obtain a verdict of guilty, withoutallowing the accused an opportunity of pleading justification, and to rather sacrifice the case than to allow of a thorough investigation being made. The general opinion is that this course was as wise as any other tlipt could have been adopted, and made the best of a baa business, for although Mr. Whitaker will leave Dunedin rather the worse for the manner in which he shirked inquiry, some people will be charitable enough to think him less culpable than an investigation would prove him to be. There is but one opinion as to the prosecution, which is, that it oii'iht never to have been instituted, and that it is a flagrant shame that thousands of pounds of public money should have been used fin' the purpose of attempting to silence the voice of honest, criticism.