CRIME AND PUNISHMENT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 143, 19 May 1932, Page 10

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT.

AUSTRALIAN JUDGE’S REMARKS. In the course of the trial of a case at the Quarter Sessions in Sydney recently Judge Curlewis mentioned that it used to be possible to take a trip abroad for nothing—Australia footed the bill.

When Bruno Urbanski, a Pole, who had been found guilty of an assault occasioning bodily harm—throwing pepper into the eyes of two policemen —came up for sentence, Mr Evatt said that, if thestrecommendation of the jury was carried out, the prisoner would not be much longer in Australia. His Honour: There might' be obstacles in the way of deportation. If Urbanski was deported other foreigners who wished to be sent homo might resort to the commission of crime. At one time, His Honour added, men who came to Australia and failed to make a living wrote to their wives to have them arrested for desertion and they were returned at the expense of Australia. Then the wives went no further. His Honour mentioned that at one time he thought that, when a man did something which was dangerous and did not do as much damage as he meant to do, he was just as responsible as if he succeeded. He had presided at the trial of a man who borrowed a gun, loaded it, went to the house where a girl lived, cocked the gun and was about to shoot when the girl’s father knocked the gun up and no harm Was done. . . His Honour said he was of opinion at the time that the man had been guilty of attempted murder, and he sentenced him to 15 years’ imprisonment. As he understood it—he might be wrong—the Court of Criminal Appeal took it that the man was in love with the girl and - had adopted that method of showing his affection. The Court of Criminal Appeal reduced the sentence to two years. His Honour had to follow that decision and, instead of sentencing lUrbanski to five years’ imprisonment as he had intended, he would sentence him to two years’.