THE TIMARU MURDER CASE.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17072, 17 February 1921, Page 8

THE TIMARU MURDER CASE.

TO THE EDITOR OF "THE PBES3." gj r —The point raised by your correspondent "Fiat Justitia' in connexion with the sentence of Matthews is of much interest, a,s I em sure the public conscience is greatly exercised over this tragic ending to a handicapped life. Surely the motive .behind the action should have some bearing upon the sentence, and in the case of Matthews it was most assuredly, rightly or wrongly, self-defence. Twenty years ago, in lnvercargill, a man in a frenzy cruelly murdered his wife with a flat-iron, and his sentence was commuted. The layman is much puzzled over these things, and it would seem as though a great deal more could be done for the »oul of Matthews than suddenly to hurl him to some unknown region where he can no more be a problem to us. It is said that in olden times the Scotch used T o take their criminals over the border into England,.and there abandon them. Is that not what we aTe doing with Uhia man, simply shelving our responsibility? jNo man on the jury which decided his guilt could tell us where wo are sending him, or whom he wiil trouble next, yet witih shut eyes we take the risk. Like your correspondent "Fiat Justitia, 1 ' lam not a sentimentalist, but it seems to me that this man Matthews is not receiving our boasted British justice at the hands of his fellow-men. —Yours, etc., F. Christchurch, February 16th.