CLEMPSONS CASE.

Evening Star, Issue 12973, 9 June 1908, Page 4

CLEMPSONS CASE.

PETITTON'FOR HIS RELEASE. [Pee United. Press Association.] INVERCARGILL, Juno 9. A petition is in circulation requesting the Minister of Justice to remit the sentence of three months' imprisonment paesed by Mr Justice Denniston on Clcmpson, a respectable married man, who altered his school certificate, making it appear that he had passed the Fifth Standard when he held only a Fourth Standard paes, in order to get employment in the railway service. The petition* says:—That, while not reflecting in any way on either the justice of the sentence for the offence of which Clemrson had been convicted, or the length thereof, your petitioners ask for the clemency of "the Crown in the direction of its mitigation far the following reasons: That the prisoner- has a wife and young family of two .to support, both mother and children being all in delicate health, and the latter under two years of age. That the caso is one that in similar cases has frequently been dealt with under the First Offenders' Probation Act, but, unfortunately, a previous offence—that of breaking a window when a mere lad, seventeen years old—was put in against him, leaving the matter in the position that it can only bo dealt with by mitigation of sentence through the clemency of the Crown. Under the heading 'Misplaced Severity,' the ' Dominion,' Wellington, 6ays it agrees with the Dunedin 'Stair's' opinion that the sentence of three months' imprisonment imposed on Clempson was " an outrage." One could hardly conceive a case better suited for the operation of the wise and merciful Probation Act. " Most people will regard this young man's offence as little greater than the offence of a. man who steals bread for a starving wife and family. His forgery was of a teiflinig chairactor ; his n:ctive was an anxiety to obtain work. His punishment will shock everyone who reads of it. Nor is the Judge's action the only regrettable cixcnnistfliiico in the affair. The public will desire to know why the Railway Department did not con-taut itself with reprimanding the man, or at the most dismissing him. Only an over-zealous busybody would approve the taking of such vengeance upon a mnn guilty of deceiving the depaiilment iivio believing that he had crossed the yawning jrulf between the Fourth and the Fifth Standard. The Government should certainly take steps to have the outrageous sentence on Clcmpson remitted without delay, and the Minister of Railways should also make it his business to inquire info the reasons for the action of the officials responsible for the prosecution."