INADEQUATELY PUNISHED

Evening Star, Issue 12606, 11 September 1905, Page 1

INADEQUATELY PUNISHED

[Special to the Star.] j AUCKLAND, September EL "BEereutao," in the 'New Zealand Herald,' on Saturday moralised on the Dawson case tins:—" I doirt know that any sentence paused an » self-confessed thief has ever caused so much public talk as the astounding leniency of the punishment inflicted an the young man Dawson, who managed to purloin nearly £3/100 of the Racing drib's money, and who was not only goiSiy of embezzling, but of matic falsification of the books of the club —sm offence which of itself was formerly regarded by the law as even mole serious than that of defalcation. The whole thing is as mysterious as the voucher incident. The only explanation I can conceive is that the Judge (Mr Justice Edwards) must have been in a particularly compassionate mood that morning; but though it is admirable to temper justice with mercy, these ane other considerations which ought not to be altogether ignored A Judge cannot rightly disregard what is due to society. The morals of the public are largely in his keeping, and, wise or foolish,. a sentence may make all the difference in the standard of ethics which is adopted by the community. If an offender against the law be treated with undeserved leniency, the effect on the body politic cazmot be otherwise than pernicious and demoralising. Many things have happened in Auckland of late which have bean calculated to lower the code of public morality. It ia all the more necessary, therefore, when the oppor trinity occurs, that our Judges should endeavor to mark their sense of the gravity of the fraud and dishonesty by the passing of adequate ' sentences on, those who are guilty of the form of crime which, unless checked by some such rigorous measures, is likely to spread and to be productive of immeasurable crime."