GAOL FOR LIFE.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXVIII, Issue 10739, 9 November 1928, Page 6

GAOL FOR LIFE.

SCATHING COMMENT, BY JUDGE. 1 MANSLAUGHTER: .QF CHINESE-. C . ON GOLDFIELD. ' j' j; f -. .HARDIE SENTENCED. (Press Association.) DUNEDIN, Nov; 8. In sentencing William John Hardie ' to life, imprisonment for the manslaughter of a Chinese at Kyeburn Diggings, Mr. Justice. (MacGregor kaicl that on the. evidence ; the jury ■iriigli b have convicted the prisoner of murder. lie: could find no extenuating'. circumstances to warrant him passing less than- life sentence. .It .was quite plain he kdled t-he unfortunate vie tup in, very brutal circumstances. He was a. young man, 22 years; of age, who had,, been in arid out of industrial schools from' an early age. He seemed to have*-been incorrigible and dishonest, arid) to have been convicted ! for... forgery, uttering and theft. Mr. Hanlon, prisonfejr’s ' co.uhscf., had previously intimated the abandonment of his intention to get Hits Honor to state a case for the Appeal Court with regardto the admissibility of the dying declaration of tho Chinese.” - ’ “ ‘ . Mr. Adams, Crown Prosecutor, stated that, the files showed' that prisoner seemed abnormal. He would not suggest insanity, but Hardie suffered from other people, and the speaker had no doubt that had been the origin of the crime-. In' concluding, His Honor' remarked that if, as suggested by counsel, prisoner showed signs) (of,, 'refbripation. no doubt it would he open to the Prisons Board to take, tvfiiafc steps it considered advisable in the way of releasing him or otherwise. Hardie showed no emotion as he was led away.