Truth NO-GOOD NOMAN.

NZ Truth, Issue 218, 28 August 1909, Page 4

Truth

NO-GOOD NOMAN.

PUBLISHED E VKKY , SATURDAY BURNING at Luke's Lane (off •ManneksSTREET;, WEIiLTNGTON, N,Z. Subscription (fn advance), ios. PER A-KSUM. SATURDAY, AUGUST 28, 19(19.

Mr Justice Chapman; who. is presiding over the present criminal sittings of the Wellington Supreme Court, had before him, recently, for sentence a crafty criminal m the • person of an expfesiSman, a creature by the name of William John Noman, who, for a series of serious crimes, received a sentence of 18 months" imprisonment. This self-cdhfessed inciter of crime, or properly speaking, receiver of stolen property, must, this paper confesses, have congratulated himself oh the rather tenienfc treatment that, his Honor meted to him. The facts of the various cases, which are set forth m another part of this issue,, are. well worth perusing, if only for the purpose of aseertainin.«; the sort of greedy, sordid vwreteh Noman is. He, we imagine, is a person of some means,- indeed, this paper, from an outside source, learns that. Noman is a property owner,. from which he derives a fair amount of' rental, m addition to which his express, business was a fairly lucrative one. From this, it can be seen thsit he ought to have been above the temptation to further enrich himself from the weakness and crimes of others and the fact lhat Noman was not altogether a man of straw, so appealed to the learned Judge that he announced his intention as a 'duty to society, to deal. severely with the craven cur of a criminal that appeared before him for sentence. Whether, under the circumstances, 18 months' imprisonment is a severe and deterring scatrcncq, ."Truth" prefers to oner no opinion. Noman was not a poor, struggling devil leading a hand to mouth existence. He seems to have had carting contracts with numerous warehouses, and he proceeded from his store of worldly goods to taint hitherto honest warehouse employees, one of < whonv from the evidence, was m receipt of a most paltry pittance and with whom the temptation to thieve must have been strong, and who, under pressure, found it irresistible. Noman, m the words of the money-lend-ing fraternity, rendered temporary, 'financial aid. Having thus 'got his victims m his usurious grasp, he squeezed them, and, unable to meet the Shylock's demand, they thieved, if not for iNoma'n, then to satisfy his greedy demands., iNoman received from his victims Stolen property. He knew the goods and merchandise he so received was ill-gotten, hence his plea of guilty. The actual thieves alleged that Noman incited them to crime, and this has not, and apparently could not, be denied by the money-grubbing scoundrel that Mr Justice Chapman so caustically condemned. One of Moman's victims was a mere youth, another was an old, grey-haired servant, Whose evening of an hitherto honest and irreproachable life has been clouded by an act ot dishonesty which m this world will never be forgotten, if it is ever forgiven. Now, from other sources "Truth" learns that this creature Noman has become rich rapidly, and m view of the disclosures made the conclusion forces itself on one's mind that Noman has for some time been engaged m wilful dishonest practises. It has been sworn that he received, knowing it to be stolen, huge quantities of chemical and other preparations. These he certainly could not have used himself. Certainly the proceeds ot pilfering operations were not divided among his few friends. There ' must have

been a market for the stolen property. And where is this market ? Surely it is not now too late for the police to investigate and ascertain, even from Noman himself, where and with whom he traded m his illicitly obtained goods. . We have it on fairly good authority that certain individuals m this town have openly stated that they had bought certain goods at a price less than it costs to lahd them m New. Zealand. If such should be the case, these persons must know quite well that they had engaged- m a deal that was crooked, and are; therefore, criminally responsible. There have been scandals m this crooked dealing m stolen warehouse merchandise before m Wellington, and as long as there are warehouse thieves > and ihciters to warehouse thieving and criminal receivers and participants m pilfering of the Nq-gobd Noman type, there will he still grosser sbandals of crooked dealing. It is fortunate that Noman has been brought to book and punished for his despicable and mean crimes, but it is unfortunate, if, so far, Norman has not been forced to divulge the names 6t those with whom he traded m stolen goods. If there were no "reputable, honest aiid religious" tradesmen, or eve'h professional men, inclined to indulge receivers 61 the Noman type, there would be no Nomans, and if thefr were no Nomans there would be no warehouse thdeves. Warehouse robjberies of an extensive' nature have been iJainiuliy provalertt m Wellington of late years, . and the thieves, Whose eminent aid pious respectability having been successfully pleaded fofc them, have escaped the just consequences of their acts. •'Truth'* 1 could crite, and ho doubt' they are all remembered, many cases of warehouse' robberies, where the thieves actually called parsons and "Mary Ann" Aitken to testify to their good characters - and the pious influence of parsons and melancholy wowsers has so acted that the thieves escaped scot free. The result of this leniency m the past is now manifesting itself, and under the circumstances Mr Justice . Chapman ought tb have marked his sense of the gravity of Npiria jl's crimes by inflicting such a term of ainprigonmeht that would act as a' warning, partiCulaxly to the receivers of stolen property.