AN INADEQUATE SENTENCE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CV, Issue 12424, 13 February 1901, Page 4

AN INADEQUATE SENTENCE.

Titf. Mn;ri:-trate did not err on the uide of severi; v when passing sentence in the lipbiting cr.irr yesterday. The assault seems to have been a singularly savage one, and as far as the evidence .revealed there was not the slightest provocation. ■Mr Beet-ham. himself pointed out that drunkenness -was no excuse for such an attack, and considering the circumstances, we should think that a sentence of six months' imprisonment would not have been too 'heavy. The modern tendency in the punishment of crime is all in the direction of regarding offences against the person as more serious than those againtt ■property. There was a time •when a man suffered as severely for the theft of a. sheep as for the murder, of a fellow ibeing, and'we still regard sheepstealing, on the average, as nine times more serious than, say, lip-biting. An examination of the sentences imposed by Justices of the Peace, of'courue, would* give some curious comparisons, but, taking the cases dealt With jby regular magistrates only, we should say that wife-beating a-?id vagrancy in this-colony are regarded as equally criminal, while horse-stealing and burglary are rather less serious than manslaughter. Breaking and enteriug and theft have been visited during the present sessions of the Supreme Court with sentences varying from one to two years, yet we venture to think • that ■most men would rather lose a gold watch and chain than an inch of lip. , Of course, the character of the accused and the general circumstances of the case must be taken into consideration Jby magistrates and! judges.. and if our gaols were really reformatories we should have no objection to long sentences for habitual theft or vagrancy; but as matters stand the. treatment of offenders against the person is still far too lenient,.' We do not single out yesterday's case as a specially flagrant instance of an unduly merciful sentence, -because there are magistrates in the colony who 'would have given Wilson the option of a fine ; but for all that, ■one month's imprisonment is hardly an adequate sentence for so brutal an assault.