Our Wellington Watchman.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2818, 9 February 1888, Page 2

Our Wellington Watchman.

The divinity that doth hedge the Wellington newspaperman hath been kind to liim this last week, and hath given him something to write about in the shape, not certainly of a" magnificent murder," or a" sweet suicide," but of an' interesting incendiarism. Of a supposed incendiarism, I should say, for I do not wished to be classed among those who write any man guilty until he is legally proved to be so, and it should be .remembered that a man is not held to be legally guilty of any crime solely beceuse he has confessed to the commission of such crime. :

These remarks are prompted by my abhorrence of a vicious'trick of which few New Zealand papers are entirely guiltless, that is, commenting upon a case that is sub jiulice. In the case of these supposed incendiaries everything that can.possibly tell against the prisoners, including their alleged antecedents, has been raked up, published, and commented upon. True, the presumptive evidence against both may be very strong, and true also that one of them has confessed; but men have been;.hung on far stronger evidence who have afterwards been proved innocent, and men have repeatedly confessed to crimes which they have never committed, and after all only one has confessed. '

How is it possible toe men can ■have a fair trial? The Judge will doubtless fire off the conventional stupidity, warning the" jury not to be impressed with anything they may have seen in the papers relative to the case. As if the minds of jurymen were slates, and they could rub off any item thereon! Moreover it is a fundamental principal of English justice that a man's previous convictions should not be brought against him until after trial and immediately preceding sentence; and yet the papers are minutely recording the previous convictions of the accused. I know no crime, not even murder —for wholesale murder may eventuate from it—that should be more severely punished than arson, and I would be the last to say anything in mitigation of the severity of the sentences passed upon these men, when they an found guilty, but until then I hold it to be a cruel crime to publish anything prejudging their guilt, and I make bold that, were they men of position and wealth, and with powerful friends, the papers now screaming for vengeance would be mute as mice.

Some day, mind you, the newspapers in their auxiety to cater for the morbid tastes of a portion of the public will catch a Tartar, and have to pay through the nose for what is mistakenly called journalistic enterprise. There was a case here to which I think I called attention some short time ago, which showed the vile injustice that may be done to a man, even though his antecedents have not been blameless. A reputed " spieler" wa3 charged with having robbed a "gentleman " in an hotel.' The papers raked up the " spieler's" record of service, and declared a lot of counterfeit coin (which turned out to be brass counters) had been found on him. The poor wretch was locked up and remanded tor some time and then the "gentleman" found that lie had not been robbed. Never-the-less the accused was committed. Before trial the " gentleman," who, by the way, had a peculiarly - criminal type of features, left left suddenly, profoundly mourned by a sorrowing circle of creditors. No cards. It was a mystery to some how the " gentleman," who was a perfect stranger here, managed to get tick to such an extent in so short a time. It seems plain to me: A man who carried £l5O (the amount he" lost") about with him must bo a man of means and I respectability. Notice it?

Sorno people here talked about hanging the suspected incendiaries, and one of the local papers pointed out in a most incisive article that if we hung all the persons suspected of arson some of the" very fust families" and all sorts of church elders and deacons and other holy bald-headed superior persons might dangle twixt heaven and hades. I cannot say, however, that I believe all the houses said to be fired for the sake of the insurance are really set light to by the owners or persons interested. I think better of human nature than that, and would be sorry indeed to believe that we are a lot of cold-blooded scoundrels, who, for the sake of making a few hundreds, would peril tho lives of women and children. There is a confounded lot of human nature lurking about, and I lor one am disposed to believo that the major portion of civilized human nature, is at the bottom, good and kind, and would shrink from grilling its fellow creatures for filthy lucre.

Still, there certainly are a number of mysterious fires in New Zealand. Rats and mice will aocount for some, not for all. Talking about that reminds me that cats, kittens at least, are probably as great lire-raisers, as rats. A friend of mine has a young cat, which, from earliest lcittenhood, manifested an unconquerable predilection for boxes of matches. No matter where the matches are placed, on a mantle-piooe, v in a cupboard, in abedroom candlestick, or on a chest of drawers, sooner or later she will have them. I have seen her make an almo3t miraculous jump on to a mantel-shelf, carefully abstaining from knocking the ornaments down, but seize a box of matches, pat it with her foot until it rolled on the carpet, jump down after it, open the box with her paw and light the matches by scratching them with her claw. Fact. No thrashing makes the faintest impression on pussimmediately her punishment is over she calmly smells about for more matches. A cat like this adds a fresh terror to life, but she would bb invaluable in a too heavily insured grocery store. Intending " fire-fiend" raisers, please copy.

But I have a theory of. my own re< garding the origin of a good OTrnbei

of fires, I do not believe they are' caused by insurers. I believe they are purposely lighted—/or fun. . Yes, strange as it seems, I soberly believe, • indeed I know that there are in this •. world cheerful monomaniacs who not resist lighting up a housej or b'spM or haystack occasionally, simply for the pleasure and amusement a blaze ' affords thorn,

Some years ago we hired a servant. " A perfect treasure'," Mrs Watchman , called her.-Indeed she soemedso—; clean, regular, methodical, handsome,' and demure and calm as a riun. For <'''*■ one >month things - were heavenly. Then, one Sunday night, the" Treasure" asked leave to run out ; for five minutes—probably to meet her curate, for a superior girl of that sort, and with her idiosyncrasies, was sure to marry into the Established; Church.' -. She went. Five minutes-after, the fire brigade tried: to -lmook the- front door down. She had, before leaving, lit the gas stove (though it was not wanted, and carefully, placed the...; guppa-percha piping across the We got the fire out, and then ffiaS Treasure returned. She did -not : remember lighting the. skive,, We cautioned her to be careful and forgot - the matter.; Next Sunday morning,when I descendel to breakfast, I several newspapers and dusters pimp! to the mantle-drape, all in a fine / blaze, The Treasure was in another room,, sweetly ' trilling •' " Awake my soul!" She said that was her way of : drawing the fire up. She looked somewhat chastely disgusted with the . warmth of my expostulations, but. told Mrs Watchman later on that she would pray-for me. Next Sunday • evening, on our return from Church, . . J we smelt gas. The Treasure had turned all the gas taps full on, but had : neglected the formality of lighting them. I heard her explaining this in : . the most dulcet tones to the ' missus,' she also told the missus all about the beautiful sermon she had heard v preached that night, and said she had been especially impressed by the clergyman's vivid description of the fires in another place. Faced by me, the girl admitted that she had tried to set the place on fire—she could not ' help it; she simply •' loved to look , afire." Prosecute? Well, no, The girl was mad, and bad on thayfee point—irreproachable otherwise. 1^

Shortly afterwards I encountered another similar case; A young fellow, son of wealthy and highly respectable parents, was arrested for having caused three fires in one night. The evidence against him appealed irrefutable. However, by hard swearing, I tear, and by the splendid efforts of his counsel, lie managed to swing clear, although his father in open Court .. guaranteed to send the youngster out of the country immediately. ' When it was all over the fire-raisers previous history came out. There had been mysterious fires at two schools that , he attended, He was suspected but nothing could be proved. He was sent on board a training-ship. The ship was set on fire—lie suspected. In fact wherever lie went a fire happened and I was informed by one of his relations that' this young man .from earliest childhood had a monoWiia for fives, His people kept tkeirpromise and sent him abroad.

Oh I forgot to mention they sent him to—ls ew Zealand, (To be Continued).