TO-DAY'S EXECUTION.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 9181, 12 August 1895, Page 4

TO-DAY'S EXECUTION.

■ A woman is to be hanged in New ; Zealand to-day and, so far as we are aware, there has not been a single ■ public petition sent in to protest against the execution. This is a striking fact, and we feel bound to 1 say that, in our opinion, so far from ; showing apathy or callousness, it denotes that there is an innate sense ' of justice in the community which on [ this occasion has proved too strong for the mere hysterical sentiment • which sometimes springs up in dis- ■ regard of such questions as reason and > right. We are not now discussing ■ the problem as to whether capital ■ punishment ought or ought not to be ' abolished. At present it is the law of • the land, and this being so. Minnie • Dean has justly incurred the penalty, i unless we are to hold that, under no > circumstances, for no crime, however ■ heinous, shall any woman be • hanged in New Zealand. The ■ case was clearly proved. It was > shown that for mere motives of f gain the convict deliberately muri dered the innocent children entrusted i to her care, and whom she schemed to '' get into her clutches. There can be i no public sympathy in a case like this, s and we are not surprised that Minnie s Dean goes to her doom to-day without a hand stretched forth to save her.