Persons, Prisoners and Publicity

NZ Truth, Issue 791, 1 January 1921, Page 1

Persons, Prisoners and Publicity

Of course, m this little Dominion there Is but one law for all, without respect of persons or of positions. Were any Government.' no matter by •what name it called itself, to dare to plainly state per statute book that the respeotable well-to-do transgressor of the law was, to be treated lightly and with due consideration, while the poor t proletarian plug, guilty, mayhap, of a r less serious!) lapse, might be biffed to ■;' the "boob" for the longest stretch al v- ;_ lowable, the whole country would rise ''. In open revolt and drive the putrid L partisans from office. Therefore,,- no h-. Government is quite so silly as. to 4 commit political suicide after*. such a drastic and dishonorable fashion-rb.ut, . it gains its purpose nevertheless. And how' does it do this? Simply, by being apparently most liberal and .(progressive m „she powers which it confers upon* magistrates N and, judges. It . places Jn the hands of these dispensers of Justice (sic) . certain discretionary powers. If a person is fou,nd . guilty, ' the magistrate or judge presiding at the trial has power to let the convicted person down light or sock it into him to the limit. "We, generally, can make «. shrewd guess. as to a convicted person's, social position or political pull by the measure of punishment meted ' out. When a man commits a. beastly i act and gets sent up for five, seven or i ten years, we do. not need to be told that he was riot a member of any of l * the leading olubs or a regular atten- ►"' der at Government House receptions. We can see between the lines that he Was a wielder of the festive pick and •gleairiing shovel, -arid that instead of '. affecting a low-cut waistcoat, exhibit^ Jng an educatod. .taste m ties and having his hair set to music, -as he prepared Kintself-for his rilTlce of a morn - Sng, we' can see the bowyangs and dungarees written m large capitals ' all over the columns of the: -paper m " '*rhich the case is reported, as we read the austere judge's shocked ut- '* terance of disgust that such a brute ' should be brought before him for trial. b- If on the other hand, we see profes- " ' BionaVmen brought m as -witnesses to '■'■"' give "expert" evidence, and the Judge snivellingly remarking that the case is 'one more for pity than punishment, as- he commits the prisoner to a home to be specially treated "for what'; after all, is more a disease thai* a crime," we do not need- to be informed further that, he doesn't doss frl the wbolshed at shearing time, nor milk' his twenty-five cows before breakfast. . These infallible „ indicaL,- tions of the social status m civil so- ■ ciety, of men convicted of serious . crime have been much more m evidence of late than in* the bad old days, Some of our judges and magls- ■ trates have, also, of late/ taken to L using their discretionary ipoWers to r shield evil-doers from publicity by forI- bidding the publication of names of * sertain convicted persons m any newspaper account of their trials and con- '{■■ mictions. We are willing to admit that I as our knowledge of psychology L v?rows the State may become con- ■■; zinced that it is not m the interest of ■Vxhe lieges to have certain sordid -det' tails published broadcast with vicious P 'veracity, but m that case the order I -would apply to the" evidence of all ft;' .such cases, and not merely to that In '■" the case of particular persons whose 'gusto-picaresco" would outrage the feelings and morality of the keeper of a bawdy house, but who, or whose *"• friends, "were possessed of social .or '; political "pull." Then we have the IL case of the ■ less venal wrong-doers, ■}: such as the female shop-lifter, and W' the office employee that pilfers from m ' his employer's till, or m other w^ys IL' acts dishonestly, who, when convicted fetaof theft, has a lawyer put up who the N unimpeachable respecta1* bllity of the prisoner's family and asks ■ that magistrate to order that the ™ 'iame be kept out of the papers." ?'•' Only last week a case of this particular'type was tried m Christchurch, m which a lady typist and her mother vere up for stealing hats. It was k out forward m extenuation^ of the X jrime committed by the mother that R. ?he was unaware that her daughter W" had been at the same game a month *'■' <3r so earlier, and- that her act of theft £• vas done at the suggestion of the r •laughter.,* It was also put forward k hat the* '-parties belonged to a highly t- respectable family, and* had no need to , '' commit theft on account of poverty or I - restriote*i income, and the lawyer !■'■£•■ asked that under section 9 °* th<i >-■': OffWderst Probation Act, the publlcai' tion\b«, 4 .t»d'' parties' names be forbldi, den, aj^o^est which Magistrate McBL ."JartwF &r"^noe granted. How differ■L *;nt isf tbe treatment of the proletarian HP plug who, after transhipping .coal all Mr day.-' and knowing that his family are B< -'ithout a flTe, fills a sugar sack. of B ■■■■'"3 debris of black diamonds spilled 8".,n the wharf to take home, or the Br case of the poor woman .in Wellington R." who, because of her dire necessity, ■! : gathered coal on the railway line near X Wellington. *he actual need was adm mitted m both cases, but both' were BL convicted and punished, and their Hr -nmes published m all the day-lies; B- Truth" has no objection to a general Wm. lie forbidding the publication of tho r ames of all first offenders no matter .hat the tran«|rreßsion, short of the B apltal charge, and without respect to B -octal position. In fact, it follows H his rule, without any order from a H r>.t(vfrlstrats ' if it Is aware that' the B -onvicted person la a first offender , B nd especially if such, person be a ■ woman or young girl, But "VruW H itrongiy protests against the unfair H *nd deliberately partial m«ttiiiiftr m B *hloh this clause Is brought into

trates must know that m some cases publicity is the worst and only form of punishment that certain wrongdoers dread-