LAW TO TAKE COURSE

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 250, 21 July 1942, Page 3

LAW TO TAKE COURSE

Case Of Cecil Humphreys

The opinion that the matter should be left for the Court to determine in the ordinary way is expressed by the Minister of Justice, Mr. Mason, in a letter received by the mayor of Wellington, Mr. Hislop, in connexion with the case of Cecil Hugh Richard Humphreys, the young man who was extradited from Tasmania to the Dominion. A petition asking the Government to consider the case with a view to recommending to the appropriate authorities that the prerogative of mercy should be exercised in favour of Humphreys, and which had been signed by iirominent citizens of Hobart, was recently placed' before tlie Minister by a deputation. This deputation was headed by Mr. Hislop, who acted at the request and as the representative of Ihe Lord Mayor of Hobart.

“■While one may be moved to sympathy in the hope that Humphreyss exhibition of resourcefulness and endurance might reveal socially useful possibilities,” says the Minister, ‘one unhappily, on the negative side, _ is faced with a series of irresponsible actions revealing an almost complete disregard for the rights of property, but apart from this one has to have regard to the general discipline of our reformatory and penal institutions in the Dominion. The honour system to a very extensive degree is in vogue, prisoners in detention being placed on trust. It naturally follows that the greater the degree of trust, the greater the degree of gravity with which any violation of that trust must be viewed. Weighing up the position, I am constrained to the opinion that it would be neither in Humphreys’s interests nor in the interests of discipline in the institutions for a pardon to be granted in this case.” After being extradited from Tasmania, Humphreys dived from a ship into Auckland harbour early in the morning of June 13, since when nothing has been heard of him.