Page 9 Advertisements Column 2

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16324, 23 September 1918, Page 9

CORRESPONDENCE. * 1 A PLEA FOE CLEMENCY. TO THE EDITOR OF "THE PRESS." Sir, —The sentence passed in the re- ; cent coal case at Lyttelton has astounded many who have no personal interest whatever in the matter. While the decision is undoubtedly sound law in ' view of the evidence tendered by the representative of the shipping company, there is a feeling in many quarters that the penalty inflicted has far outweighed the offencc. It was admitted that permission had been given to take possession of any coal left on the wharf, and though this permission was granted under an erroneous assumption, surely the fact that the removal of the coal was sanctioned by one who believed he was within his rights in granting this permission, should have received more consideration from the Bench. It apparently was not realised ) that the coal in question was the property of the shipping company, otherwise permission would never have been given by one Who was not a servant of the company. That the agent for the consignees erred in granting this permission is most unfortunate, but until this case came up it was probably not an uncommon thing to so dispose of coal which had fallen on to th© wharf, and it does savour of extreme harshness that a man with a record of twentyseven years' good service should be 60 severely dealt with as a result of a misconception on the part of a second individual. The end 9of justice could surely have been met had the accused received a magisterial lecture pointing out the strictly legal view of the matter, since no sane man who appreciated the real position, and who was within four years of his superannuation, would have risked his future for a paltry five bags of coal sweepings. Not in the very slightest do I suggest that the' charge was not proved; my point being that while it was proved, it was also proved that permission was actually given to' remove the ooal, I by a party who assumed he was within j his rights in granting this permission. The plain man looks on theft as the i taking of something which you have no b permission to take, and the_ granting of f sanction, even if wrongly given, he also reckons places the act outside the catefory of thieving entirely. This may not e law, but to the non-legal mind it , looks like common-sense. The judgment .of the Magistrate being doubtless correct from a strictly >- legal viewpoint, I would suggest that II the Justice Department be asked ree spectfully if on full consideration of all the evidence, it can with honour see its way to remove the sentence as an act / of common Charity. Hard beyond words the case of this j. official seems to be, and if these lines stimulate prompt action with the. end of having the matter sympathetically j- considered by the Justice Department, they will have served their purpose. — a Yours, etc., SYMPATHY. September 21st, 1918. The disclosure that an inventor has 4i been killed while experimenting with a parachute for aviators brings to mind 56 Mr Rudyard Kipling's invention eight n * years ago of an air-inflated suit for airmen. fie went quite seriously into the matter, and drew his own diagrams for id a technical journal. He pointed out • ; that a little protection about tne head and shoulders in a fall, say. from 40ft to 50ft, might make all the difference between life and death,, and 1 he sug- = gested a helmet of rubber inflated on the crown and round the back and over s - the collar bones. The height of the padding on the shoulders would be such n ' as to cushion off the worst of a sideways wrench. He also urged that rolls of rubber should be placed under the t. chin, so that the head could be driven _ down without too much harm. S3 —

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