SENSATIONAL CHARGE MADE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXI, Issue 2334, 9 October 1926, Page 5

SENSATIONAL CHARGE MADE.

RELEASE OF PRISONER.

USE OF INFLUENCE ALLEGED

Under the heading, "A Favoured Thief Goes Free," the newspaper N.Z. Truth makes sensational charges this week in connection with the release by the Prisons Board of Sidney Erne Baume, who was sentenced to three years' informative detention in February last for defrauding the Wellington Post Office of £llOO. The paper states that, accompanied by his mother, Mrs. Rosetta Kane, wife of Mr. E. W. Kane, Clerk of the House of Representatives, Baume left Auckland on Friday of last week aboard the Marama for Sydney, it being a condition of his release that he should not return to Wellington and that hu should sail by the vessel for the New South Wales capital. It declares that Mr. Kane is Baume's stepfather. Terming the action of the Prisons Board a " travesty of justice, Truth alleges that Baume was released solely because of the social position of his relatives and the influence they could wield. It draws attention to the fact that William Smith, a labourer, who was Baume's accomplice and was sentenced to 12 months reformative treatment, was still a prisoner, although he took a minor part in the crime. It asks for an explanation from the Hon. F. J. Rolleston. Attorney-General and Minister for Justice.

The New Zealand Times reports that considerable comment has been evoked by the release from prison of Sidney Erne Baume, whose case excited "great attention when before the courts some months ago. In reply to a question as to the operation of reformative detention measures, the Attorney-General, the Hon. Mr. Kolleston, said that once a man was sent to gaol it was not the policy of the Prisons Department to supply the public with any information as to that man's movements while in prison or as to his subsequent release." "If information of that kind were broadcasted, it would be most unfair to the prisoner whom we had hoped to reform with a view to making him a good and useful citizen afterwards. "If the fact were advertised that a man had just been discharged' from prison, what chance would he have of making a fresh start? The sentence of reformative detention is essentially one which is subject to review by the Prisons Board, whose recommendations invariably are acted upon."