THE HOBBS CASE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 20 August 1924, Page 4

THE HOBBS CASE.

COMMENTS BY JUDGE. NOT WILFUL DECEPTION. FEVER OF SPECULATION. In the Supreme Court, New Piymouth, yesterday morning, before the Chief Justice, Sir Robert Stout, George Samuel Hobbs appeared for sentence on six charges on which, he had been convicted of irregularities connected with his bankruptcy. * S' • Q uiilia m, who appeared tor Hobbs, said that in view of all' the evidence that had been placed before the court he did not think he could usefully add anything. He desired to point out,- however, that Hobbs was a man who had held good positions and had been prosperous. In the boom years he had, as many others had done, embarked on the speculative buying and selling of property and ■became seri-* ousLy involved. It was in order to put himself right he had made these false statements in the hope of things coming out right. He was now a ruined man, and counsel might say a repentant man, and was doing his best to re-establish himself in the eves of the public. The Judge said he did not intend to send the pritener to gaol. The case was. not one which he termed a wilful act of deception. It had been brought about by what the prisoner did, and what a great many other people did, unwisely and wrongly. Before the speculative buying of land reached its height in the years covering the prisoner’s transactions, his Honor said he had pointed out from the Bench that we had three other instances of this class of speculation in this country, more particularly in the South Island, and he had advised people that the values of land were too high, and that they should not go on paying the prices asked for land. “My advice,’’ said the Chief Justice, “fell on deaf ears, and as a result there had been ruin in many quarters.”

Continuing, his Honor said that if it had been proved that by his statements the prisoner had succeeded in obtaining advances of money from his creditors he would not have been able to forbear sending him to prison. The sentence of the court was that the prisoner be admitted to probation for 12 months, that he pay £32 8s 4d costs of the prosecution, ancl £25 as the hank’s expenses of the prosecution to which he' filed the vexatious defence. He was allowed 12 nionths in which to find the money. His Honor said he was pleased to hear that Hobbs was endeavouring to make good again, and in view of the police report he did not propose to impose any special terms in connection with the probation. He hoped the jury’s recommendation, and the lenient treatment accorded prisoner would not convey to people an impression that they could make such statements without the fear of punishment. He hoped the case would be a lesson to the prisoner and a warning to others.— Herald.