THE CHARGE AGAINST GABB.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 9435, 5 August 1889, Page 3

THE CHARGE AGAINST GABB.

TO the EDITOR.

Sir, —la the Herald of Thursday yon report the case of Charles Gabb, charged at Onehunga with annoying females in tire street and writing; Indecent letters. I have known Gabb for three years, and employed him for more than two; I have always considered him well behaved, strictly honest, fond of reading, with a total absence of anything coarse or vulgar in his conversation. I have seen in writing and heard the testimony of others in Auckland to the same effect. Feeling sure that the charges were false, I visited Onehunga on Saturday. As the alleged offences of annoying females occurred four months ago, and since then Gabb has carefully avoicTed the streets of Onehunga by night or day, ib iti evident that the whole charge is revived in consequence of the sending by someone the offensive letters. There was no adequate reason for respecting Gabb. Without any warrant the police take Gabb from his home, search for and carry off his papers. They have then to prove that he wrote the letters. They obtain the services of Mr. R. 1). Stewart, master of the public school, who considers himself an expert in judging writing, and who gives evidence aboub the resemblance of certain strokes and letters, and though the writing was said to bo disguised, he is sure thafc the letters were written by Gabb. Now, however, it is certain that . neither the sergeant of police, whom I challenged upon the subject, nor the magistrates themselves, believe that Gabb wrote the letters. I was not allowed to see them, though I pleaded my right to do so in justice to Gabb. He has kept himself strictly secluded, living outside the town with his friend Welsh, and knows no one in Onehunga. These three letters are all written to persons whom he had never known or heard of, evidently by some mischievous larrikin for his amusement. A clever detective could have found out the writer. But there are only two police in the place. I do not doubt but that the original charge of following females is equally untrue. He would have liked to spend his evenings in the Free Library, but he was told he must pay 6d a month. The police heard that someone had been annoying females, and thinking that Gabb was without visible means of support told him he was suspected, and cautioned him. Doubtless they did more, and it was soon taken up. Every time a woman was walking in front of him he was, of course, following her. He walked in the middle of the road, but if he went off to the path it was with evil intent. All the most virtuous females seem to have been out about 9 o'clock, and the apparition of Gabb's straw hat was a signal for a panic. Poor Gabb is a man 5 feet 2 inches in height, and not plucky in spirit nor strong in body. His father is a medical man in England, and he amuses himself in the evening with writing clown his ideas. In the papers captured there was nothing vulgar, or indicative of his being a reprobate. No one (but a constable) who knew the man would believe the charges against him. But he has been put in prison for four days. If he appears he is insulted. It seems to me that all the parties concerned, magistrates, police, witnesses, and the writing experts owe him reparation, for a cruel injustice has been done to an inoffensive and honest man.—l am, etc., C. P. Newcombe.