QUEENSLAND DEADLOCK.

Marlborough Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 314, 19 September 1888, Page 3

QUEENSLAND DEADLOCK.

The following is an account of the case which led to the disagreement between the Governor of Queensland and his Ministers, and it will he recollected that the Colonial Office has endorsed the view taken by the Premier of Queensland :—•

A man named Kitts was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment at Townsville for steal ng three pairs of boots. Kitts petitioned the Executive for his release under the First Offenders Probation Act, which provides that prisoners may be allowed to serve their sentence at large, urging, amongst other reasons, that his wife was about to he confined, and that ir lie wore not present at home thero was danger, probably that she would lose her reason Kitts’s words came true. His wife alter her illness became insane, was sent to Wogaroo, and died only a few weeks ago. After carefully examining the whole case the Colonial Secretary recommended that the provisions of the Act should be extended to Kitts. His recommendation met with the approval of his colleagues ; hut the Governor declined to accept the advice of the Executive Council, and expi eased his views in a strongly-worded minute, contending that this was a question affecting tho exerciso of tlie royal prerogative of mercy, in which he must be guided by his own judgment. He also hold the view that it was extremely inexpedient, and a thing that would tend to shake the confidence of the public in the administration of the law, in any way to interfere with the sentences of the Courts of tho colony. The matter remained in abeyance until the return of Sir Thomas M‘ll- - from the Melbourne Exhibition. There is reason to beb'eve that during his visit to Melbourne the Premier laid the wliolo case before the highest legal authority in Victoria, and received a most completo confirmation of liis own views. .Returning to Brisbane he addressed a long memo to the Governor, in which he dealt with the whole question, including the constitutional principles involved. Ho pointed out that since His Excellency the Governor had assumed his position he had remitted the sentences of one hundred and sixtynine prisoners, seventv-one of whom had been tried before Judges of the .Supremo Court, forty before the District Court, and the remainder at petty sessions. Of the seventyone Supreme Court cases, thirtynine had been reported on by the judges, and His Excellency in twenty-eight of them had remitted the sentences against the expressed opinion of the Judges. Of tho District Court cases, seventeen had been reported on by the Judges, and eight remissions bad been granted iff opposition to their reports. Groat stress is laid upon the fact that in the whole of those cases the Governor acted on the advice of his responsible Ministers.