RELEASE OF BRAY IN HOBART TOWN.

Thames Guardian and Mining Record, Volume I, Issue 17, 26 October 1871, Page 3

RELEASE OF BRAY IN HOBART TOWN.

By way of the South we have received later Tasmanian papers. The Hobart Town Mercury of the 30th ultimo says : young man who was arrested immediately on his arrival here by the barque 1 Bella Mary,’ from Auckland, on Thursday, was not brought before the Police Bench yesterday, owing to a slight difficulty in the way of obtaining the desired remand. It is necessary that proof should-be given

of the signature of the Justice signing the warrant, and Mr. C. D. C. Quodling has not yet been able to obtain such proof in this instance. Mr. Bray will no doubt be brought before the Court in a day or tweybut in the meantime he will, \Ve understand' be accommodated within the precincts of the gaol. He is now detained on a charge of having forged a •promissory note on the Bank of New .South Wales, Auckland, for £IOO prior to leaving New Zealand.” In a subsequent issue the same journal states that, owing to'the want of necessary identification of 'the signature attached to the Warrant, Bray had, upon the advice of the Attor-ney-General of Tasmania, been released. This result appears to have been effected in a.great measure by the strange sympathy exhibited by the Mercury for the accused, that journal, in a leading article on the 30th ultimo, making some rather strong “aspersions; with, reference to those in Auckland who were instrumental in securing Bray’s arrest. It is not customary for journals to pre-judge cases, more especially when they are so far removed from the scene of the occurrence as to render an acquaintance with the real merits of the case impossible.— D.S. Cross.