PRISON SENTENCE TO STAND

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21970, 19 December 1936, Page 16

PRISON SENTENCE TO STAND

AUCKLAND MAN CONVICTED ON GAMING CHARGE _____ DECISION OF MINISTER ANNOUNCED U'HKSS ASSOCIATION TELEUH.VM.) AUCKLAND, December 18. The Minister for Justice (the Hon. H G. 11. Mason) has refused to release from gaol Thomas Curran, who was sentenced in Auckland on November 19 to two months' imprisonment on a charge of keeping a common gaming house. Shortly after the hearing of the case in the Magistrate's Court, a petition was circulated in the city, obtaining 10,000 signatures of citizens, asking that part of the sentence be remitted, so that Curran could spend Christmas in freedom. # There has been considerable interest in the city about the fate of Curran, and this afternoon Curran's solicitor (Mr Mahony) visited Mount Eden prison and secured the permission of his client to make the Minister's verdict public. Mr Mahony said that he had received a letter containing the Minister's decision on December 11. The letter said, inter alia: "In the circumstances, I regret that I am unable to see my way to make any recommendation about the sentence imposed last month." This letter, Mr Mahony added, was in reply to an appeal made earlier by him on behalf of his client for reconsideration of the sentence in view of peculiar circumstances and of the character of the man himself. "I take it that this is Mr Mason's final answer," said Mr Mahony. "Whether or not this is the final disposition of the matter in view of the petition, I have no information to indicate."