PAWELKA'S SENTENCE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXI, Issue 15331, 14 June 1910, Page 3

PAWELKA'S SENTENCE.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —I feei that 1 voice the opinions of the vast majority of citizens in saying that the extraordinary sentence on Pawelka is a shock to the conscience of this country. The strength of law is the sanction and sympathy of the people, and contempt for it is not occasioned when some poor wretch escapes and is hunted unsuccessfully, but rather when its administration seems stimulated by official panic to unnecessary severity. What has this poor creature done to deserve twenty-one years' imprisonment? 1 venture to say most New Zealanders do not class escapement from custody when opportunity offers, and consequent petty thefts of food and clothing by a hunted man as grave offences. The advance of modern science tell that "the bottom dog ' is the product of heredity and tho vicious environment which our present system of political government suffers to continue. When we know how Nature handicaps our weaker brothers we shall shrink from adding punishment uoon punishment. We can condone tho wretched wrong which springs from brute minds; education will in time minimise this, but the cold, calculated kind imposed by the majesty of the law is unforgivable, and of which two striking examples are before us this week—first a poor lad of twelve m Sussex, who stole fivepenny worth of coal and received seven years, secondly this human weed Pawelka, with his twenty-one years in God s Own Country. , I am hopeful that the widely-ex-pressed sympathy will at least encourage our New Zealand Government to follow the Home Secretary's example and mete out mercy to Pawelka. j —L.arn, etc., H.H. 73 THE EDITOR. Q[ Tj Pawelka's sentence came as a great'surprise to me. Few of our worst criminals have had such severe sentences. According to the magistrate he' was of ill-balanced mind. His fel-low-workers gave him a splendid character but said he had altered after a severe illness. If his wrong-doings were the result of an ill-balanced mind. surely medical, treatment in a mental hospital for a time is what ho most required. Three ruffians who walked tho Christchurch streets some time back shooting at people and robbing them got respectively one, two and three years' imprisonment. Pawelka's is practically"a life sentence; no chance for him to turn over a new leaf and retrieve tho past. 'I am afraid this letter if vou grant me space for it, will not lie able to benefit the poor fellow, but if abler pens than mine will take the matter up it may result in less severe sentences being given in future, thus enabling men, although they have done wrong, to get another chance and live better lives. We are in a Christian community and our Bible teachings are : "Weep o'er the erring one, lift up .the fallen." Tho judge who sentenced Pawelka, with his ill-balanced mind, to so many years of hard labour, reminds me of tho Timaru magistrate who imposed a. fine of £ll on a man for attemnting to commit suicide because he owed £7. The samo amount of reasoning has evidently been used in both cases.—J am, etc., G. M. HEAVEN. TO THE EDITOR. Sir. —I am surprised at the " Lyttelt'on Times," one of the most influential papers of the colony, never saying a word about the harsh and uncalled for sentence on the 'foreigner Pawelka. What about British fairplav and justice? Fancy the Judge giving him a drink of water, and telling him he was not all there, and then giving him twenty-one years! It it had been proved that he shot the policeman it was only manslaughter, and he

could only be sentenced to life. The same thing'occurred a good miiiiy years ago when that notorious criminal Butler got eighteen years. Nobody was sorry for him. but a young man, with all his life before him, sent to gaol for twenty-one years, is a miscarriage of justice. If he bad been sentenced to seven years it was any amount. What about the people who were responsible for his escape? Are they to go scot free ? Are they not nartly to blame for the policeman's death? Everybody regrets to hear.of a brave man being shot doing his duty. A jury acquitted Pawelka of the policeman's death, and he gets a longer sentence than he would if he had killed the man. A petition ought to be got up, and presented to the Minister of Justice to remit a part of the harsh sentence. —I am, etc., J. B. NISBET.