A SERIOUS OFFENCE

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11663, 30 October 1923, Page 4

A SERIOUS OFFENCE

PUBLIC POINT OF VIEW GREAT DIFFICULTY IN OBTAINING EVIDENCE. CHIEF JUSTICE AND K.C. In the couise of a sub-mission in tlrCourt of Appeal yesterday on behalf of a prisoner who had been sentenced at Gisborne to five yec.is’ rnpreon ment for counselling a woman to p;o cure abortien, Mr M. Myers. K.U. said it was highly important from a public point of view that sentence* o! this sort should not be excessive, and greater that what met with public approv.il.

H-e alluded to the difficulty in obtaining convictions in such cases, and said if jurymen were to believe that excessive sentences were to be imposed, that difficulty would be increased. He made that submission with all due respect to the court. The Chief Justice (Sir Robert Stout) did not think such a sentence was excessive when the legislation provided for a life sentence. His Honour regarded such eases with all seriousness. Air Myers later pointed out that His Honour had never imposed a higher sentence than two years.

The Chief Justice : Very few of these cases have <cme before mo. His Honour added that he remembered one ease at Auckland where Air Justice Chapman imposed a sentence of 10 years for this offence.