POWELKA'S SENTENCE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 143, 18 June 1910, Page 7

POWELKA'S SENTENCE.

■ (To the Editor.) Sir,—-Accept my sincere thanks for the vigorous leader re Powelka. This ease concerns not only Powelka, but the whole Dominion. The sentence, and the cold water that was given with it, will long be remembered; in fact, bid fair to be- j come.matters of history. I have been 40 years in New Zealand, and I have never yet found the Auckland public slow in j helping " the cause that .lacks assist-! ance." May these few lines, then, meet the eyes of some who are able and I willing to organise a public meeting, in order .that the iron be struck -while it is i hot. It is also to be hoped that Powelka may hear of the efforts that are made on his behalff. The thought of being quite forsaken is a terrible tor- - ture, and has crushed many a one both in body and soul.—l am, etc., -'AIRPLAY. (To the Editor.) Sir, —I am sure not one of your many readers but must have felt grateful for your timely leader on Saturday night, and we will surely not allow our courts of justice to be converted into Russian court martials, ias appears from the un-mitiga-fsed sentence passed by Judge ■Cooper oh that young man—boy, I might say—sPowelka. Mr. Justice Cooper, in passing sentence, stated that Powelka had a Badly-balanced mind; need he wonder if his severe strictures and heavy sentence were to cause the poor unhappy ■mind to give way.—l am, etc;, THOMAS _______T. . £_o the Editor.) Sir, —It is gratifying to know that where the law has failed to make the punishment fit the crime, as in the present case, which must appeal to anyone possessing a sense of fair play, there is such unanimous dissension '(after all he refrained from sheep stealing). What constitutes breaking gaol ? Does a horse break stable when it walks out of an open door, and would every mother's son become warranted in handling firearms to shoot at sight, as though it were a wild ferocious animal escaped from a circus menagerie? No wonder we hear of missionaries coming to New Zealand; we need some enlightenment.—l am, etc., ARTHUR CUMMINGS. (To the Editor.) Sir, —I think it would be well if Auckland followed the example of Wellington, Wanganui and the labourers on the West Coast in protesting against the injustice of Powelka's sentence. If those who feel as I do take the matter up, I have left my address at the office of the "Star," and would gladly subscribe towards expenses incurred.—l am, etc., JUSTICE. (To the Editor.) Sir,—The severe and bitter sentence passed upon the young man Powelka is not much in keeping with the clemency to prisoners advocated by Dr. Findlay of late in the papers, and reads more like a sentence issued from a Russian Court than a Court supposed to be ruled over by British justice. I may say that lately I have met no less than four men who knew him for a number of years before his marriage, and who all speak in the highest terms of him. As one of the writers in the letters says, will he come out of prison a sane man? because up to the time.of breaking prison there was nothing to bring hiih under- the habitual criminal category. In sympathy with the other, correspondents,-1 would only be glad to do what I could in the sad case, and have as much as possible of the terrible sentence remitted.—l am, etc., . j. GRAOIE.