GEORGE LONGHURST.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1355, 13 September 1883, Page 1

GEORGE LONGHURST.

Months ago I wrote as follows, “It will b( received by the good people of Poverty Bay ( aye, indeed by the whole world, with feelings of great disappointment and sorrow that His Excellency has not been able tc see his way clearly to exercise the prerc« gative vested in him of setting poor young Longhurst free. With all the powerful arguments that have been advanced, both legally and by all sections of the press throughout the Australasian colonies, nothing powerful enough advanced to secure hie liberty There must be a still more powerful and insidious reason underlying, . which has not yet been set before the public, that has compelled Sir William Jervoise to arrive at the decision he has, and so frustrated him in using his Vice-regal clemency. That cause or reason should be fully given, in order to appease the public mind, as there is a great feeling of insecurity abroad that justice does not always hold the balance entirely blindfolded, That opinion is gaining ground every day, when other recent cases are compared, and that there is, what is not inaptly nor inconsistently termed, the “ back stair” element at work ; not with our judges, but with the matter, manner and kind of evidence that is brought before them, and the suppression of a great deal that might be very material at the proper time. The statements in this particular case have been so conflicting on both sides—and punishment borne by both accusers and accused—that by George Longhurst the most severe and degrading the law permits, that it is monstrous all should be guiltyone side or the pther’s innocence should be clearly Evidently jhere is a furtive and lurking fear somewhere that should the unfortunate lad be released, some action would be taken for his having wrongfully suffered penalties for a crime he had never committed, and his discharge would give complexion thereto; therefore he is necessarilly yet unjustly compelled to undergo the remainder of his sentence. On the other hand, it would be tantamount to the admission of the injustice of the imprisonment and barbarous injuries inflicted were he now to be released. Truly it is a most lamentable and extraordinary case, in whatever light, and from whatever stand point it is viewed, and it is also bound up in a mesh of most powerful and insuperable difficulties, to unravel which the easiest and most reasonable way without inflicting still further injustice would be to release the poor fellow instanter. To most people he will henceforth be looked upon as a martyr, suffering through the irregularities and inequalities of our criminal laws, and will ever be sympathised with by the just and compassionate accordingly, which sympathy time alone might deaden but never obliterate, and that has evidently been taken .iqtu couaideratwu. How many real mur« derers and other high criminals have Reaped the penalties of the law (land sharks, cum muftis alias) for their misdeeds, only for the want of one connecting link in the chain of evidence against them, whilst all the others have been most powerfully welded together. Therefore, why not give this poor victim the benefit of the technical bungling alone and set him free? Even if Longhurst be guilty which we do not for one moment admit, he has already undergone sufficient punishment for the offence upon which he was convicted, and which the circumstances (if true) warranted : and it is earnestly hoped that the public and press will not remain quiescent and satisfied until his liberty has been obtained. A victim he surely is, either of the inequalities of the law or perjury, and unsupported evidence or of all combined. Since writing the foregoing, a cooling interval of months has elapsed, and now the case has been again re opened in Parliament on a petition from this most unfortunate and scourged lad, and after a long and most able discussion, particularly on the petitioner’s side, Ministers have at length given consent to give the appeal their most favorable re-consideration—a good ticket to go to the country on ! It is not an act of grace or murcy. The case would never havs assumed the unjust and cruel aspect that it now wears, bad Ministers in the first instance pursued the course that they now give favorable intimation of pursuing, Longhurat’s deliverance from gaol will not erase the great blots and blemishes that now exist in our penal laws; and until those are rectified, British justice, so much vaunted and puffed up, will ever be tarnished by irragularitv and cruelty, and colonists will still e subject to the caprices of Ministers, and liable to the same scourges of bad law and maladministration, which no recompense nor relief on this earth will ever wipe the deep injuries and scars away. Emeritus.