The Evening Star MONDAY, APRIL 10 1899.

Evening Star, Issue 10902, 10 April 1899, Page 2

The Evening Star MONDAY, APRIL 10 1899.

Ah important amendment of the criminal law is now before the House Criminal Law bf Commons, with ©veiyproaAuendmcnt, pact of finding its way on , j’to-the Statute Book. Its sborb title is tbe Constructive Murder Amendment Bill, and, though loosely drawn, it makes perfectly clear its intention, which is to remove the anomaly of putting on their trial for murder persons who never contemplated, when they commenced their hazardous or illegal the commission of the capital cribs©. In many of the cases that have come before, the Courts, both at Home and in the colonies, there was no intention to take life, and in several it was proved that everything possible was done to avoid fatal consequences. In order to place- such cases in their proper category for the future—manslaughter—Mr Ambrose, Q. 0., the Conservative member for tho Harrow division, aided by Mr Abel Thomas, a Liberal lawyer with a very large criminal practice, has introduced this Bill, which it is understood Will have the support of the principal law officers of tho Crown. Discussing its raison d’etre the ‘Daily News’ remarks ; It is not only practising barristers who have been recently impressed with the number of oases in which capital seliterces have been passed and immediately afterwards cimmnted. They all belong to the same class, but the one which attracted most notice was the case of Lieutenant Wab&. Wabk was convicted of murder because be bad assisted a girl whom he had seduced to avert tha consequences, end she died unle; the operation. It was la evidence that he bad endeavored to dissande her from adopting this course, but that when she persisted hs gave her his help. Mr Justice Phillimobb, who tried Wabk, has been most unfairly attacked. The law was clear, and a Judge cannot alter the law; he can only administer It, But to hang the man would have been monstrous, and the Home Secretary did not err on the aide of lenity when he reduced the sentence to three years’ penal servitude. It is injutious to the administration of the law that juries should have to find what is not really true, and that the prerogative of mercy should have to bo exercised for the correction of a barbarous law. Waek’s case was naturally contrasted with the case of Collins, whom Mr Justice Gbantham weakly allowed to be prosecuted by the Attorney-General for manslaughter. Collins was a doctor who made his livelihood by tho performance of criminal operations. His case was infinitely;worse than Wakk’s, and he richly deserved the seven years’ penal servitude he got. But it is very doubtful whether his conviction wax legal. For, though he was guilty of murder, he was not guilty of manslaughter. “Nothing in this Act,” so the second clause begins, “ shall operate to prevent any person “ who shall have killed or caused the death of the “deceased from being convicted of the offence “of man-laughter or of the offence in tho com- “ mission of or attempt to commit which tho “ death of tho deceased shall have been caused.” The former of thesa two provisions seems scarcely to bo required. Constructive murder is not manslaughter, nor does manslaughter imply malice of any kind. But the latter proviso is mo.-t important. Collins’s offence was a serious one, and would have been quite as serious if the patient had not died. It ought to bo punished even when the woman survives, because the object is no justification for the ri-k. But it is not murder, and tho public conscience is revolted by calling it what it is not.

Three applications under the Old Age Pensions Act came before Mr Carew, S.M., at Port Chalmers on Saturday afternoon. One male was granted a full pension, one case was adjourned for proof of age, and in the other the applicant failed to appear. The opening entertainment in connection with the South Dunedin Presbyterian Church Band of Hope was held on Friday night, when there was a fair attendance. The Rev. I. Jolly, president, was in the chair. A good programme was gone through, consisting of songs by Misses Oliver, Bumside, Gallkhan, Hambleton, and Pollock, and Mr Black, recitations by Miss Ross and Messrs Mills and Ritchie. Misses Bumside and Newlands officiated at the organ.

Mr Justice Pennefather announced this morning that he would be sitting here till the end of next week, and that he wished to get through all the civil cases that could be finished by that time. The present sittings would necessarily end next week, as he would be going away and Mr Justice Williams was leaving for the Court of Appeal. His Honor added that Mr Justice Williams would come back in time to take the criminal sittings in Dunedin and then hurry off to Invercargill. The funeral of the late Bro. J. D, S. Burt, of the Lodge Cargill Kilwinning, No, 632, S.C., took place in the new cemetery, Port Chalmers, yesterday afternoon. There was a full attendance both from the Cargill Kilwinning and Fort Chalmers Marine Lodges, and, in addition to the family and friends of tbe late Bro. Burt, the whole of the employes of Messrs Morgan and Cable, in whose employ the deceased had been for years past, attended. The Masonic brethren deposited sprigs of acacia in the grave.

On Thursday of this week the stipendiary magistrate will be asked to decide a novel point raised by the police under the Gaming Act. It is alleged that the Dunedin Jockey Club authorised an agent to sell totalisator tickets in town in connection with the recent Cup meeting, and the question to be decided is whether this does not contravene the statute—whether, in fact, it is not absolutely required that jdl betting for the totalisator should actually pass the money over the counter.

The Canterbury Agricultural and Pastoral Association and the Industrial Association have now very nearly completed their task of raising the £5,000 required to be taken up in proprietary shares towards the funds for providing an Industrial and Agricultural Hall for Christchurch. Buildings which will cost some £IO,OOO to £12,000 are to bo erected. Matters will be pushed forward as speedily as possible, in view of the approach of the celebration of the jubilee of Canterbury and the Industrial Exhibition to be held in connection therewith. Competitive'designs are to be invited for the buildings, which will probably take fully twelve months to construct.

A pathetic interest (relates a recent ‘Argus’) attaches to the deaths of two boys, reported this morning, the one under painful and the other under tragic circumstances. Both were about eight years old. One of them, Edmund Frederick Dunn, the son of a lighterman on the Rebecca, fell into the Yarra from the Despatch last Friday evening, and his body was recovered yesterday morning. The other, Francis Norman Jepson, was the son of a lighterman on the Nonpareil, and was found in a shallow lagoon in Fisherman’s Bend yesterday afternoon, and murdered, according to her own statement, by his mother. The two cmdreu had been “ chums ” for years, and were always to be seen running about the lighters or playing along the banks of the river in company. They are now lying side by side on a marble slab at the morgue. The Zenana Bible and Medical Mission, or Indian Female Normal School and Instruction Society are sending a deputation to New Zealand consisting of the Rev. A. R. Cavalier, Mrs Cavalier, and Miss Aitken. The deputation hope to reach Dunedin shortly* and commence operations. The mission is undenominational, and works in co-operation with the Church Missionary and other Protestant missionary societies in India. It has stations or Bible women at thirty centres, and employs 127 European missionaries and assistants, and 191 Native Christian teachers, nurses, etc., and seventy - eight Bible women. In addition the mission Has seventy-two schools, and also has hospitals and dispensaries at Lucknow, Benares, and Patna. The work of the mission has grown rapidly of late years, and the many open doors and urgent calls have caused the mission to be anxious to secure more Christian ladies to take part in the work, and so extend its usefulness. The mission’s headquarters are in London, and Lord Kinnaird is its j treasurer. The deputation (who are returned missionaries) are placing the needs of the Hindu widows and women of India before the public, and hitherto have met with much sympathy and success. Public and drawing room meetings are being arranged for by Messrs Lawrence Cook and John Wilkinson, both of this City, to whom invitations for missionary addresses by the deputations should be forwarded.

1 I fI : Th« Mariposa, with tlxd colonial mails (Match *2(5), arirvkd 6h April 7, her due date. At tho Ohambers sitting this morning Air Justice PehnelatKer flxef dates for certain'; matters on the civil list. 1 . To-morrow judg* merit will be delivered in Howell v. Ross, the Banco caseoFMaxwell V. Randall (the Sal-' vation Army appeal) will pome up for argument, and the divorce matter of Sim V. Sim . is also to be fixed up. Gill v. the Corporation is provisionally set down for Wednesday, of mis week, and M-Phee.v. Wright for Thursday. As to next week’s arrangements, .Colbeck v. Guthrie is fixed for Tuesday,! Howell v. the Queen for Wednesday, and the argument of a preliminary law .point in Smith v. Watson for Thursday, flts Honor declined to fix; any cases, beyond that date, but intimated that he would sit in Chambers on Saturday in order to facilitate clearing away of any short it was desired to bring on. CoihsMc asked that Irvine and Stevenson v., Piqfjeting stand over till after the Court of Appeal, and it was stated that Wallis v. Marshall had been disposed of, and could be struck out. His Honor consented to the application -io, set down Rutherford v, Rutherford, which through inadvertence had not been sot down on the ordinary day, Mr W. C. .MacGregor made this application, and Mr Finch 'opposed it. The following are the office-bearers of the Licensed Victuallers’ Association for the ensuicg year: —President, Mr John Galder; vice-presidents, Mr J. Collins and Mr J. L : ston; committee —Messrs L. Spalz. A. Gray, A. Shaw, J. W. Cummings, W. H. Skitcb, 0. Tflburn, John Watson, 0. F. Greenslade, and J. Lsffey ; treasurer, Mr A. Thomson. The Association decided to invite designs for a suitable fire escape for hotel buildings. The Ernest Toy Concert Party brought their season to a close on Saturday night with a. concert which drew one of the largest audiences of the season ; yet the attendance was not by any means proportionate to the merits of the entertainment—indeed, If the capabilities of this company had been adequately reoogohe i there would have been a full house every night. It is a pity that so many missed the opportunity of instruction and gratification. The features of Saturday’s concert were the violin solo on ‘Trovntore music,’ played by Mr Ernest Toy, and Miss Ronde Lees’s transcription for the pianoforte of the ‘Faust’ wallfe, but all that these accomplished young soloists attempted was given with musicianly taste, and they were ably Supported by the permanent vocalists of the party—Miss Alice Simmons and Miss Maud Dulrymple—backed up by Mr Marcus (tenor), Mr J. jago (baritone), Mr J. M ‘Donald (baritone), and Mr W. Farquhar Young (basso), an encore being demanded for nearly every song. The Toy Concert Party go on to Christchurch by way of Oamaru. The detectives are at present making strong efforts to find owners for all the articles which were found in the possession of Mary Banwell, and up to date they have succeeded in getting most of the things identified. In Saturday’s issue we described the numerous articles for the theft of which this woman was arrested, and now her husband, Charles Banwell, who was employed as a carter for a well-known fiim in town, has been apprehended in connection with the same larcenies. On Saturday afternoon the female accused was brought before Mr Gourlev, J.P., charged with theft on the 31st October, 1898, of one roll of cloth, valued at £5 19 >, the property of Louis Faigan, and also with stealing a pair of sheets and other articles, of the value of 25 t, the property of William Kelly. On the application of Detective M'Gra'.h accused was remanded until to morrow. This morning the husband was called on to answer no less than nine charges of theft, including tho two on which his wife was brought up, but the detectives wore not prepared to go on with the cases, so he also was remanded till to-morrow, when both the accused will ba arraigned on the whole nine offences. The goods, which are expected to total about £3O, were found in tha house occupied by tho recused in Grange street, and the police hope to have the remainder of the articles identified in a day or so.

The annual meeting of members of the Dun* edin Horticultural Society will bo held on April 23. The cheapest house in town for household requisites is Montague’s, the comer shop.— [Advt.] The Presbytery of Dunedin meet in First O-iurch to-morrow evening. For waterproof coats in supe.lor qualities at lowest prices for riding, driving, walking try N.Z. Clothing Factory, Octsgo.-. —[Advt.] Mr A- H. Burton's fourth reading will be given in the Choral Hall an Wednesday evening, when bis selections will be from Charles Dickens. Try Muir and Hoodie (late Burton Bros.) for new and stylish portraiture. Albums of N.Z. scenery made up for presentations.— [Advt.] Ihe Lodge of Otago, No. 7, meet in <he Freemasons' Hall, Moray place, on Wednesday evening. Officers and members.are also requested to attend the meeting of Lodge St, Andrew to-morrow evening.