MUTINY ON THE EGERIA.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 2779, 6 May 1890, Page 2

MUTINY ON THE EGERIA.

THE SENTENCES OF THE COURTMARTIAL CRITICISED. (by electric telegraph—copyright,) Sydney, May 3. The Daily Telegraph has an article this morning dealing with the court-martial which is being held on the ringleaders of the alleged mutiny on board the H.M.s. Egeria. It considers the constitution of the court-martial distinctly uufair, and declares that the partisan colouring which is given to the court renders an approach to even-handed justice a designed impossibility. The Telegraph then goes on to refer to the charge on which Petty-officer Allen was sentenced to five years' penal servitude, and characterises it as a trumpery one, adding that it is simply absurd to describe the trouble which took place among the crew as a mutiny. Aftnr the travesty of a trial the man was sentenced to five yearn for an offence which any civil Court would have considered met by a month's imprisonment, May 4. Murch, a leading seaman on H.M.s. Egeria, in whose case those conducting the court-martial had reserved decision, has been sentenced to two years' imprisonment, and at the expiration of the sentence to be dismissed from the service. At the-trial one witnuss stated that the crew had been treated more like men who had committed felony or murder than mere breaking of leave by two hours.