SEVEN YEARS FOR ARSON.

Mataura Ensign, 23 May 1910, Page 5

SEVEN YEARS FOR ARSON.

THE WANGANUI CASE. FER UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION. WELLINGTON, May 23. Joseph Paul Davis and Martin Haines, who had been found guilty of arson in connection with the fire at the Rutland Hotel, Wanganui, were today sentenced to seven years' imprisonment with hard labor. The Chief Justice (Sir Robert Stout) said it was not an ordinary case of arson. If it had been he would have dealt with it more leniently. The fact was that if the fire had not taken place at the time it did—and as he believed contrary to the expectation of Haines, —if it had been delayed an hour there would have been no chance of saving the lives of any of the people in the hotel. The prisoners therefore risked human life, and any action which had any effect on human life he (his Worship) always looked upon with horror and he could not deal with the case otherwise than from that point of view.