MISTAKEN LENIENCY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 59, 3 April 1907, Page 2

MISTAKEN LENIENCY.

Not without justification Ims thorn boon some strong comment ou the. leniency meted out to the foul-mouthed indivi-! dual who was arrested on Monday afternoon near Western Park, New Plymouth, in the presence of some hund-. reds of men, women and children. The nisi*l state of drunkenness in which the oiYendor undoubtedly wis, his gi'iienil disturbance of the and incidentally ihe features of seven l would-be, pacifiers, and his resistance of the police, were as nothing compared with the disgusting torrents of a'huse and obscenity which 1 hundreds of passers-by, (the majority of them women and children) had perforce to heal' from his deliled lips. Had Ihu offence been committed within the district under the jurisdiction of the Wellington Magistrate's Court, Chore is not ihe slightest doubt that the individual would have got his dosserts—siXi months' hard. Jn New Plymouth, however, it would appear that there is a disposition to consider the feelings of a profaner bel'oro those of tho general I eoimmmiiy. and the local dispenser o! jn^lice considers a Jiiio of O. in default a week's incarceration, sulliciont punishment. There is such a thing mistaken and unjustifiable leniency, and tliis N a strong ease in point. ]\l on misbehaving in the way the pariv in • piestion did >honld not lui given the oplion of a fine. Tllev deserve no consMcnition. (.'a<d is 100 good for them. J'logging would be a better corrective.