LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1159, 21 June 1911, Page 5

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

THE DEATH PENALTY. ' Sir,—To say that the community re. ■ ceived a rude shock on reading of the Executive's decision to carrj' out the sentence on Tnhi Kaka would be to put il mildly.' 1 quite agreo with your evening contemporary's remarks on the case end its ndvico to tho petitioners. Still, as a large majority of tho people (at least thoso that I know) are desirous of a reprieve, I may be pardoned tor writing my opinion, as we have a law which eays ft murderer must hang, it is quite right that it should bo carried out. Ihis Jlaori boy has been found guilty of n brutal murder and the law says he uiust die. Lionel Terry was found guilty of a callous and brutal murder, some six years ago, but he did not hang.- I would mention others whose cases aro equally as brutal as Kaka's and still the murderers have not been hanged. The New South Wales hangman has resigned because his , business has got slack on account of murderers being reprieved. At present New Zealand has' no official hangman. .Now, don't let us appoint one. let us think of this: a probably ignorant Jlaori, a mere boy who, like a good many more murderers was maddened with the lust for blood for the moment. What benefit does tho State get by hanging a man? What benefit is it to the relatives of the murdered man? Will the execution of Kaka clean society or bring'back to life tho victim? No; it will not. Capital punishment is a , blot on a civilised community, a disgrace to the country, and a relic of barbarism. Fancy, the hideous nightmare in reality of the prisoner listening to the scaffold being erected alongside or near his cell! Every blow on the scaffold banging into his ears like a eledge-hammer. Imagine, if you can, a minister of the gospel assisting in this hideous farco by reading the burial service, while the condemned man is on the way to his doom! It is religious hypocrisy carried to tho extreme, and all bosause the law clamours for revenge, and lastly imagine the legally murdered murderer being cut down and pronounced "dead" and at the inquest on the body the .finding that ho died from a broken neck. Who is going to hang this boy? The authorities have to look round for;a suitable man to attend to tho; execution. Do they not, by appointing a hangman, create another murderer? No man with any heart or sense of selfrespect could lower the dignity of his manhood' by allowing himself to be appointed to. this disgusting and diabolical position. I call it refined fiendishness. ' People who knew the late hangman used to look upon him with disgust and loathsomeness, just as they would upon some poisonous reptile. Can any nian be such a brute as to come forward and say: "I will hang him"? I sincerely hope not.' I have tried to be brief, but allow me.ono more word and I have finished. iWe, as a part of the British Empire, wish to commemorate the Coronation of George V in a fitting manner and various suggestions have been made. Let mo. suggest that we commemorate his Coronation by abolishing for ever capital punishment. Let Kaka be kept in gaol where he will have his own conscience to prick and punish' him for the rest of his days—a punishment far greater than taking his iife, and yet more humane.—l am, etc., ■ .. S.W. OLIVER, Palmerston North, June 18, 1911.