FORTUNATE HIGHWAYMEN.

Auckland Star, Issue 38, 14 February 1929, Page 6

FORTUNATE HIGHWAYMEN.

One comment that the public will make on the last stage of the West field hold-up case is that a clever counsel is sometimes worth his weight in gold to a prisoner. Counsel for Stewart, who in so able an address sought to minimise the gravity of the offence (which was quite properly emphasised by the Crown Prosecutor), no doubt knows the old story of the young woman and the irregular baby that was "only a little one.'' Robbery under arms is robbery under arms, whether the robber has nerves of steel or whether his knees turn to water, or whether he gets away with nothing or a fortune. There would have been nothing Gilbertian about the hold-up if one of the victims had been shot. In passing sentences of one year's reformative detention the judge was extraordinarily lenient. He "had some doubt whether he was not too lenient in not punishing lliem more severely," and the public will share that doubt. Let us hope that the subsequent careers of these men will justify treatment that is so disproportionate to the seriousness of the offence. We pride ourselves on our freedom from this sort of offence. If the next man who commits such a crime in New Zealand is not punished much more severely there may be an invasion of the country by gentlemen with these dangerous inclinations.