WHERE THE lAW LAGS!

NZ Truth, Issue 524, 3 July 1915, Page 8

WHERE THE IAW LAGS !

♦ , ,-■ And So On Till The End \ " The Problem. of Violet Paton Magistrate Cooper Pities Her, and Prescribes Prison. One of thoae painful cases Avhich our present day "'punishment" makes no provision for, transpired at the Wellington Magistrate's Court on Tuesday last, before Mr. D. G. A. Cooper, -S.M. A. pretty young woman, of that ivoryhectic type of countenance peculiar to the consumptive, appeared on a varied charge of rogue, vagabond, Phryne, and all the badness which a weak sisterhood Is capable of. Her name is Violet Paton and, through Lawyer P. W. Jackson, she pleaded guilty. Mr. Jackson: This is. one of those PECULIARLY- PAINFUL CASES m which it i« difficult to know what to ( dp. The girl comes from- a highly respectable family and every known means have been tried to reclaim her. Still, sho will go back to the drink and her evil companions. She has been sent to the Salvation Army Home; her mother has taken her to their home m the Wnikato— sho ran away from both. Sho is a chronic consumptive and there is not much left for her m thin world. Of course the main troublo witlvher is the drink, and I suppose she, will drink to the last. There was a stillness m the Court broken only by the booming cough of the consumptive girl m the prisoner"** box. Then Magistrate Copper began to speak: I can't, blamu the poor girl — she is to be pitied. Mr. .Jackson: 1 don't know her age. Magistrate Cooper: She gives it as 29. I can't sec anything olso for her except to send her to gaol. She has a longer li«t than the case previously dealt with— a woman ten years older. I am sorry, but the law allows me no other courao. Lawyer ,Jack«on: Then I suppose It will 'be the same thing- •come out or i gaol and be arrested, sn<>l a^aiu, released and re-arrested, and SO ON UNTIL TUB END. Magistrate Cooper: I'm afraid so. The maximum punishment which tin* law allows Is 12 months. Sho will be sentenced to six months' imprisonment. Poor Violet, who seemed to take no earthly interest m tho proceedings, punctuated tho remarkH of magistrate and counsel with fltw of hollow cough - Ing. She goon to a cold gaol, whilst the creature who lived upon hftr weakness and helped to cultivate hot- vice, la a frco parasite, probably looking for another victim on which to batten. Thorp are plenty of them In Wellington, but the law mokes no adequate effort to secure their punishment