A FALLEN SCRIBE

NZ Truth, Issue 1044, 28 November 1925, Page 8

A FALLEN SCRIBE

BLUE PENCIL NEEDED Could It Obliterate His Past? An eccentric-looking man with a wildness of outlook, accentuated by short hair standing erect on his head, was placed m the dock m the Wellington Supreme Court. 1 He answered to the name of Robert Austin Shearn, alias McFarlane. The offence to which he had pleaded guilty was that of breaking, entering, and theft from a -week-end crib m Happy Valley, from which he took a few small articles of no great value. The prisoner, according- to his counsel, Mr. H. F. Johnstone, had not been long m New Zealand, and was absolutely friendless. There were still remnants of a good upbringing to be discerned m his character, and from inquiries made at Home it seemed that he came from a good middle -class family. ; • ■ . ■ ' That he had superior mental qualities was, counsel thought, beyond doubt, and prisoner had credentials to show that he once belonged to a society of journalists m. Australia. His present position was due to a physical and nervous breakdown 1 that left him restless, ill at. ease, and exhausted; and his record m New Zealand and Victoria showed he had given way to fruitless and foolish offences. Mr. Justice Alpers, after spending some further time reading a voluminous letter from the prisoner, observed: "I am sorry to find a man of your ability and education m this position. I have read your .statement and you claim to have been a journalist.' You certainly have the gift of fluency and I should imagine that m your journalistic career a good deal of blue pencil was used by the sub-editor on your copy. ' '• '•You should not despair of pulling yourself together," added his Honor. "You say that when you get a job your past is reported to your employer and you are dismissed. So many men m your position of life imagine that the police are giving information against them. There is nothing of the kind." His Honor advised prisoner .to , try and rehabilitate himself— on. release from the period of reformative detention not exceeding two years that he was about to order — and to believe that he would not, as Joe observed m Bleak House, "be chivvied."