CANCER RESEARCH FUND.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10048, 23 July 1910, Page 5

CANCER RESEARCH FUND.

Received July 22, 10 a.m. LONDON, July 21

Mr Balfour, presiding at a meeting of the committee of the Imperial Cancer Research Fui:d,said deduction drawn from'its labours showed that heredity, as a cause of the disease, was a negligible quantity, and that implanted cancer couli be checked.

PAWEbK&'S SENTENCE.

MINISTER REFUSES TO INTERFERE.

DOCUMENTS THE .IUDUE NEVER SAW. -

In reply to the deputation which waited on him yesterday to ask for.a reduction of the 21 years' sentence passed on Pavselka, the Minister for Justice, Dr Findlay, in the course of an exhaustive repiy to these and other similar remarks, reviewed the series of offences of which Pawelka had been convicted, and to which he had pleaded guilty, and also reviewed the sentences imposed, and continued :

"Although the total of these periods is 21 years, the actual term to be served by Pawelka, if he behaves himself in prison, will be between 15 and 16 years. ' The actual period of each of the three terms imposed will then be reduced from seven years to a little over five years—in caße of good conduct. Is five years excessive for the crimes committed? "It is true that Pawelka has also been declared an habitual criminal, and he will, after he nas served the period I have named, be detained in the reformatory prison for habitual criminals during th2 pleasure of the Governor. In this reformatory prison he may, under the law, apply to the Supreme Court or to a judge of that Court for a recommendation to the Governor that ne has sufficiently reformed or should for some uther good and sufficient reason be discharged.

to especially impress the point that the terras of imprisonment to which I have referred were imposed for offences of which Pawelka was actually convicted or pleaded guilty, and not in any way for charges in respect of which he was acquitted. His Honor, Mr Justice Cooper, has stated that he eliminated entirely from his mind the suspicion against Pawelka attaching to these charges, and did not allow these suspicions to in any way influence him in estimating the nature and degree of the sentence which he considered it his duty to pass. "But while his Honor was bound to dismiss these unproved charges from his mind, he was also bound in duty to society when passing sentence to consider all the proved circumstances connected with these crimes—to consider the fact that be fore his first arrest Pawelka had embarked upon a deliberate career of serious crime in which he committed over a period of time no less than seven burglaries all at night—and that when first arrested he was found with at least some of the implements of this criminal v trade in his posession, with disguises, revolvers, and, worst of all, with a number of cartridges whose points had been cut so as to convert them into 'Dum Dums,' whereby a more dangerous, disabling, and painful wound could be inflicted.

DANGEROUSLY CRIMINAL. | "His Honor was also bound to con-1 sider Pawelka's conduct after his es- | csps in connection with those fiva ; provsd burglaries and the proved case of arson. He himself admitted that he had gone about armed with revolvers during the period from the 27th March until the date of his arrest ; that when arrested he had two revolvers, one of six chambers with each fully loaded, and one of five with four fully loaded. It is also clear from the evidence that hs would have used one of these revolvers upon Con stables Thomson andGallagher had he not been prevented. Thus, the judge had before him clear proof when passing sentence that this man had been going about committing burglary after burglary, arid committing arson and theft during the night time, fully armed, and with an latent to use his deadly weapons I if threatened with arrest.

"In these circumstances the judge must have recognised that there was before him not merely a man who } ad committed certain crimes, but cm* who, in the method ot committing these crimes, in the sequence hey had followed, and in the gen-

eral condbet of the offender,, shewed | niraself to fee poeseased of a dangerously criminal nature. The firet duty of a judge in crfaainal casea is to reasonably protect the safety of t;.e lives and persons and property of the community from the dangeioas criminal.

THE RIGHT TO INTERFERE. "Now, the test of my right to in terfere in this case," continued tha Minister, "is not whether I—had t been the presiding judge—would ' have imposed these sentences. The i test is r were the sentences imposed such thai r.o reasonable judge could ij?sve imposed them? In my opinion •it *s hopeless to suggest this. But I will go further. Mr Justice Cooper has recently had to suffer in silence much bitter criticism—better, in some instances, called I need not recall some of ttie epithets which have been applied, and have appeared tin the public press. I therefore take | this opportunity of saying that in my judgment, and, I believe, in the judgment of everyone who has given proper and impartial consideration to the actual facts, that the sentences imposed by Mr Justice Cooper were ' not only deserved by the offender, but wer« necessary for thti protection of the lives, person?, and propetty of law-abiding citizens. Mr Jus ica Cooper is a humane, painstaking and able judge, and tome of the attacks which have been made upotr him, when conscientiously trying to do ins duty, by several rcwspHpers in this country, can only fiiiy be called disgraceful. 'Those who know what I have been trying to do in this country for prison reform will acquit me u£ a» y undue severity to the offender, but T must firmly decline to treat this as a case in which the sentences i».poi*d were so excessive at;d unfair that I should recommend the Governor lu reduce them. There still remain* the question of whether this is a ca e in which I should recommend spec* t remission for good conduct under the Prisons Act. The short answer to this question misrht well be 'that. ?i!t the sentence has practically o>;iy b«— gun, it is Jar too toon to discuss itmissions for possible good conduct.

INSIDE INFORMATION. "But I think it is my duty to ttlt you that, altogether apart from any evidence which called or heard at the trials of PawrSka, I l ave isi my possession information which I have no reason to doubt, and medical reports which I beiieve are reliable, which will render it necessary for the prison authorities, including the Minister of Justice, t« exercise the closest attention to a> cf investigation of Paweika's behaviour and character before he is again s» t at liberty." The Minister read the information in question to the; deputation, remarking that it would be seen that the medical reports showed Pawelka to be a man of dangerous abnormality, who could only beset at liberty—if at all —after close scrutiny by trained observers and over a lengthy period of time. To prevent any mistake he added thst these documents were not before the Judge when he. passed sen.e-ice. "The prayer of the petition presented," concluded the Minister, "is that I taka the necessary steps to have the sentences of Joseph Pawelka reduced. This request my duty compels me to decline." Dr Findlay added, in reply to questions, that Pawetka's mental condition would be carefully reviewed from time to time.