"JUSTICE MUST BE DONE." NO COMPENSATION IN THE WESTPORT CASE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVI, Issue 149, 23 December 1908, Page 3

"JUSTICE MUST BE DONE." NO COMPENSATION IN THE WESTPORT CASE.

INDIGNATION ON THE COAST. [Bt Telbgrafh.— Special to The Post.J WESTPOKT, This Day. The Government's refusal to compensate Halinen and the relations of Andersen (who are regarded in Westpont as largely the victims of errors) has created indignation. The evening paper, under the heading "A Cruel Decision," says : — "The Department of Justice is determined, apparently, to obstinately carry out to the bit/ter end the wrongheaded policy it has displayed from the very start of the tragedy which has passed into history under the name of the "Bourke Murder Case.' There was a feeling in Westport that when Sir Joseph Ward made himself acquainted with all the facts, his sense of right •would have overborns the persistency of the heads of departments, backed up by the Minister of Justice, but seemingly tho expectation was a rotten r-eecl. Mr. M'Gowar has declined to countenance the payment of any_ compensation to Halinen and the relatives of Andersen. This announcement can only be made with the comment that the action of the Government is a disgrace to the members of the Ministry, and an action that must shame tho Dominion of New Zealand. Tho Crown has once more blundered, and this time deliberately. The whola affair is tragic in the highest degree : two innocent men wero arrested on a charge of murder, and after a lengthy period of custody, were found " guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to a long term of penal servitude. A. furtbsr trial took place, Connolly, the principal witness against them on the murder indictment being indicted for perjury. Ho was found guilty, notwithstanding the strenuous efforts of tho Crown (represented by the ablcsc lawyer on the West Coast) on his behalf, after having brought all tho forces of the State against two innocent men who were wrongly convicted. The innocent men were then sent free without, a word, and now a miserable compensation of nion-sy payment is meanly refused. The Minister for Justice having refused' compensation, will most probably also refuse to recommend the grant of a farcical "free pardon." The Crown has failed lam-anfcably in its plain duty throughout the whole ot the Bourke murder proceedings. In declining to make some monetary allowance to Hallinen and the relatives of Andersen, it is acting contemptibly, and the conduct of the class of whicb the Minister for Justice has been guilty in this case is more calculated to damage the Ministry in the eyes of the country than any number of mistakes in questions of high political policy, for the great heart, of the people is sound and people resent an injustice. Mr. M'Gowan has plainly acted deliberately in delaying the public announcement of his decision until after the general election, but it will be many long days before the last is heard of the Bourke murder case. Justico must bo done, though the heavens fall."