SENTENCE BY JUSTICES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18467, 31 January 1922, Page 3

SENTENCE BY JUSTICES

YOUNG MEN IMPRISONED. INQUIRY SUGGESTED (Feom Ora Own Cobbespondent.) WELLINGTON, January 30. Two young men who broke into a whare farm in order to secure shelter for the night were sentenced by justices of the peace at Dannevirke to six months’ imprisonment. This case was mentioned in the House of Representatives to-day by Mr O. E. Statham (Dunedin Central, who asked the Minister of Justice _to _ ascertain if a serious miscarriage of justice had taken place. The young men, said Mr Statham, had been (pimping the country, and they entered the whare for shelter one night. They were arrested while eating their own food, and had been treated in a very summary fashion by two justices. _ If there had been a miscarriage of justice, would the Minister remove the justices concerned from the commission of the peace? The Hon. E. P. Leo replied that his attention had been drawn to the newspapers’ report of the case. Ho did not know the particulars, except that’ the charge had been laid, and that the two young men had pleaded guilty. He had to be very careful about interference with the decisions of the courts. A Member: There is no harm in inquiring into it. Mr Leo slid he was having inquiries made into the circumstances, and as to why the sentence had been imposed. The justices of the peace had a right under the Constitution to deal with cases of the kind, and it would bo a difficult thing to remove them from the roll even if they had committed an error of judgment. His experience was that brief newspaper reports very often did not reveal all the facts about court oases.