The Wairarapa Daily. SATURDAY, MARCH 31, 1883. A PAINFUL SCENE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1341, 31 March 1883, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. SATURDAY, MARCH 31, 1883. A PAINFUL SCENE.

We have frequently witnessed painful scenes in our local KM. courts, but one wliicli occurred yesterday was so exceptional in its character that.we deem it a public duty to cull attention to it. A man, evidently in a state of mental and physical collapse, was placed in the dock and propped up there in a chair. In this position he crouched and hid his head like a timid animal concealing itself from its pursuers. When at intervals ho was forced to face the court, his terrified gestures and exclamations plainly indicated mental and physical prostration. It is clearly antagonistic to all law and precedont that a human being in such a state should be called upon to answer to a serious indictment. Had the accused been represented by counsel we have no hesitation in declaring that the ease would have been instantaneously adjourned. It was an error of judgment on the part, of the police to press a charge against a man in such a state, and we consider that an important legal and moral principle was ■violated in forcing a man to plead when he was evidently not in a fit state to answer to a charge. In saying this we admit that there wero circumstances which extenuated the mistako which we believe was committed. The man was an old offender, well known to the police, who had a clear case against him. The police, too, evidently considered that he was to a certain extent shamming. Again, a witness from Wellington had come tip expressly to attend the court and an adjournment would have been attended with public expense and inconvenience. We may also add that the police had also taken a medical opinion as to the man's state. While, conceding all this and fully appreciating the difficult position in which the police, who conducted the prosecution, were placed, we cannot consent that any mau—however vicious he may be, and whatever public inconvenience may resultshould be placed in the dock in a state of mental and physical collapse. The line which separates sanity from insanity is not. a very well defined one, and even medical men are frequently at fault in trying to trace it out, Our own conviction is that the man committed for trial yesterday, though he might have been sane prior to his arrest was decidedly not so during the time he was in the E.M. Court.