The Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, JULY 26, 1889.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXIII, Issue 159, 25 July 1889, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, JULY 26, 1889.

Judging by the excitement that has been I created in some parts of the Colony in reference to the case of Louis Ohemis, now lying under sentence of death for the Kaiwarra murder, and the vent it has found in petitions to the Government, it would seem that — unconsciously perhaps to themselves — there exists a desire in the minds of many people to substitute trial by public opinion for trial by jury. A barbarous murder was perpetrated, Cheiniswas arrested,, and after a fair trial Which lasted for several days, and in which he waa ably defended, he was found guilty and sentence of death was passed upon him. The case for the prosecution was unquestionably a strong one, although the evidence was purely circumstantial, as indeed it is in most trials for murder, there rarely being witnesses of. the prime; ' The verdiot was not expected, aS many felt that at all events there was a doubt, of which the jury would probably give the prisoner the benefit. Immediately it was delivered a strong tide of public opinion commenced to flow in favor ofth© prisoner, or at least of sparing his life. It is remarkable, however, that not a few of those who were the promoters of the agitation, in- . eluding some of the newspapers which took part in it, stated openly that they fully believed in the convict's guilt, although they did not consider the evidence strong enough to justify his execution. How they arrived at such a conviction except from the evidence adduced, it is not easy to say. However, that is not the point which we have now in view, It appears to us that the attempt to bias the decision of the Executive by petitions, however creditable to the humane feelings of the signatories, is a little unseemly. There should be no appeal from the jury to the public on the question of aprisoner's guilt, but it is the duty of the Executive to reconsider the matter, and in the case of their having to deal, as at present, with a capital offence, this constitutes one of the most important — certainly the most solemn of all their functions, in the exercise of which they ought to be left perfectly untrammelled by any such popular agitation as that which has been set on foot in the present instance. It would be interesting to know how many of. the thousands who have attached their signatures to the petitions have taken the tronble, or have had the opportunity, of closely studying the evidence on which the jury to whom was entrusted the trial of the prisoner founded their verdict. Probably teu per cent would be far in excess of the proportion of those who had thus qualified themselves to pronounce an opinion, and yet the whole of the petitioners are endeavouring to bring pressure on the Cabinet with a view to inducing them to say that the evidence is not sufficient to justify the sentence^ being carried into execution. That it is a matter to whioh Ministers are bound to give the gravest possible consideration goes without saying, but their decision must be arrived at, not with a view to gratifying the public, but °f satisfying their own consciences. Much amusement has been caused by, and a considerable amount of contempt expressed for, one of the jurors, who stated that had he had the slightest inkling how strong public opinion would be against the execution of Ohemis, he \yould not have agreed to a verdiot of guilty. Has it ever occurred to the promoters of the petitions of which wo hear so much, or to those who have rushed to sign them, that by their action they are endeavoring to bring the Cabinet, with whom/ the final decision rests, down to precisely the same level with that contemptible juryman P j

Mb J. Harkness, M.H.R., who, as District Grand Master of the Oddfellows' Society, opened the district meeting whioh iB being j held at Wakefield to-day with the customary address, has devoted a considerable portion of that document to a oritioism of a recent j article in the Mail, in which certain ex« tracts were made from the annual report of j the Registrar, of Friendly Societies. With regard to the accidental omission to give the whole of the figures showing the financial position of the whole of the Societies, that was remedied by ub as soon as we became aware that it had been made. We are found fault with for not asking the Registrar whether he had any* thing to add to his report, and for not consulting the Societies as to whether they had any comments to make upon it, before we published the extracts from it. Our reply to this is that we naturally looked upon the report as embodying all thai; the Registrar had to say on the subject, and that we considered that his remarks ought to be given more publicity to than they would receive if they merely remained in the form of a Parliamentary paper. It was then open to every Society to critioise them, and to make known to the public the state of affairs as viewed from their standpoint. Suoh discussions could not but be .feanefijoial to all oonoerned. We are glad to find from the Distriot Grand Master's address that the finanoial condition of the Oddfellows' Lodges in the Nelson district is steadily improving, although, with him, we cannot but regret that so large a proportion of the profits made are attributable to lapsed membership. This, of course, is advantageous to those who remain memberß, but as the lapses are probably largely due to the inability to keep up the payments regularly, it must be regarded as an unfavourable sign of the times.