WRONGFUL CONVICTION

Evening Post, Volume C, Issue 85, 7 October 1920, Page 7

WRONGFUL CONVICTION

PETITION FOR COMPENSATION.

The Defence Committee of the House of Representatives reported yesterday on the petition of Mr. George Miller, of Wellington, for compensation "forwrongful conviction, degradation, and imprisonment while serving as company quar-termaster-sergeant in the KZ.EwP." The Committee's recommendation was that the petition should be referred to the Government far favourable consideration.

My. G. MitchelJ said that the petitioner had been a 'Company quartermaster at Sling, where he had been charged with the theft of blankets, and had been convicted. He had been sentenced to four months' imprisonment with reduction to the ranks. Pan of the sentence had been undergone in England, and the remainder was being served on the transport 011 the voyage out. The SolicitorGeneral, however, to whom the courtmartial papers had been sent, had quashed the convicts n 011 the grounds of insufficiency of evidence. The petitioner had been with, tho forces since 1914, ftnd his record was without a stain of aiiy sort. A wireless had reached the transport on the voyage, notifying tho (juaehing of the conviction, and on arriving in New Zealand Miller was rein- ■ Stated iii his rank, and was givi'ii all back pay.

Mr. W. S. Glenn (chairman of the committee) said that,the most careful consideration had been given to the peti-j tion, and the members hoped that the utmost publicity would be supplied by the press to their rinding. What Mi 1. Mitchell liad eaid was quite true. In referring the matter to the Government for "favourable consideration" the /committee had done all in its power, und it was hoped th'ifc the Minister for Defence would seci Miller adeqi«t«ly vecom* jpunteid. - •-.■■•' The recommendation n«a adopted.