SUPREME COURT.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4433, 1 June 1893, Page 3

SUPREME COURT.

His Honor Speak (By Telegraph.—Press Association,) Wellington, Thursday, Samuel Hill and William McCarthy, tho young men who were found guilty of assault and robbery at Palmerston North, were each sentenced to two years' hard labor. Counsel for Hill called several witnesses, who stated that until about eighteen months ago, Hill's general behaviour was tho most exemplary, but since that time bad associated with evil companions, who proved his ruin. 1 His parents were highly respectable people, Of late be had devoted considerable time to prize-fighting and this was the real cause of his downfall, There were several convictions for minor offences against McCarthy, but tho only record against Hill was a fine for common assault, In sentencing the prisoners, His Honour, Judge Richmond, referred in > scathing terms to the conduct of Hill, ' who, he said, bad been guilty of a ■ cowardly and brutal assault, In some " instances, fair play was a redeemf ing feature of the prize-lighter, but k Hill seemed to bo lost to all sense of " manly instinct, and a more cowardly ' business was seldom beard of. The 5 party, of which accused were mem- ' bers, were given up to lowest vices, ' and their acts, on the date of the out1' rage, were a gross outrage on public

1 decency. In the sentenoe he inflicted, His Honour said ho was certain he was erring on the side of leniency, and he had considerabln doubts whether he ought not to give them a term of penal servitude. '