ABSURDITIES OF THE LAW.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXII, Issue 8909, 31 August 1907, Page 4

ABSURDITIES OF THE LAW.

Mr T. 0. Bridges gives, in the July Grand Magazine, some speci- . mens of ‘absurdities which may he • found on almost every page of the English Statute Book. ” Thus to be a burglar it is necessary not only to “enter” but to “break ” So when yon forget to lock the front door or ‘leave the drawing room window open, and Bill Sikes strolls in and / annexes the silver, you cannot prosecute him for • ‘ burglary. ’ ’ Again, it the house is not a dwellinghouse, the crime of breaking in and stealing the contents is not burglary, and cannot bo punished as such. In the third place, the breaking must be done by night for the thief to be a burglar in the eye of the law, and here comes the crowning absurdity ol statute. Night is defined as lasting from nine p.m. to six a.in., whit over the time of year. So m December the enterprising burglar has , seven hours of darkness to work in • during which ho is not, legally speaking, a burglar at all. Certain anomalies of the statute connected with punishing intemperance are well illustrated by_ two recent cases. An Italian was picked up dead drunk on the six-foot vay of the South-Western railway, near Chiswick. When brought before the magistrate it was found that the man could not bo pnuisned, for the simple 1 reason that a railway is not, in the eve of the law, “a public place,’ so the Italian, notwithstanding that ho had admittedly been drunk and incapable, walked forth from the court scot free. In another case a gentleman residing in a northern suburb of Loudon found a horse and van m the middle of his tenuis court. Iho driver lay in the van in what is popularly known as a “Pj^y* 1 ?, condition of drunkenness. Naturally a policeman was promptly cal-od, but when tlio case came up at utrattord the first question of the magistrate’s dork was, “Is anyone neve who saw the defendant in charge on the public highway?” “No, sir,” answered the constable. “ ihon the case falls through,” rejoined the clerk. Ask a man ‘ ‘ When is murder not murder?” aiul he will prohuhly answer, “I give it up.” But it is uot a riddle—only part of one. of those queer old laws which wo are so loth to bliio-poucil out of the Statute Books. If a person wilfully injures another and the injured person dies within 8(5(5 days, the aggressor may be charged with murder. .But another day makes all the difference. If death does not take place for a

year and a day after the injury, no charge of murder or manslaughter eau result. “There are a large number of those obsolete laws winch have never yet been repealed.