THE LIBERTY OF THE SUBJECT.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 751, 23 July 1886, Page 30

THE LIBERTY OF THE SUBJECT.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW ZEALAND MAIL Sir, —The disgraceful treatment which

your correspondent, Mr H. T. Rawnsley, alleges he received at the hands of Wellington detectives, in an unjust, and unjustifiable arrest and detention, will not only excite general indignation, but will also arouse great uneasiness- in the public mind ; for, evidently, even the most respectable and law - abiding citizen is liable at any moment to be subjected to public degradation and be deprived of his liberty by a police detective. It is bad enough in all conscience for an innocent man to be suspected and dogged by one of these detectives, but to be literally at their mercy, to be publicly arrested, subjected to an insulting crossexamination in the streets, threatened to be put in “an ugly position,” and marched off like a pickpocket to the police station, there to be _ detained and further insulted,, is- a gross outrage, and a degree of interference with the liberty of the subject which should not be overlooked by the authorities. It is to be sincerely hoped that Mr Rawnsley will, in the public interest, take the best legal advice with a view to obtaining some reparation for such unjustifiable treatment as he alleges he received ; aud that he may succeed, ia the earnest wish of your subscriber, — Gitizen.