A PITIFUL CASE.

Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume VII, Issue 275, 26 September 1896, Page 4

A PITIFUL CASE.

It -will be remembered that some months ago a man named Darrah, residing in the Thames district, was sentenced to two years' imprisonment for having fixed a loaded gun in one of his rooms in such a position that on a supposed thief attempting to enter the apartment he recoived the eon?. tents in the " chest and- was killed instantly. An agitation was set on foot for the purpose of obtaining a remission of the sentence, but so far - as we are aware without success. A somewhat similar but more distressing caso is reported,in the London Times of August 7th as follows: —" At Leeds Assixes on Tuesday a painful case was tried, a man named Isaiah Heaton being sentenced to six months' hard labour for the manslaughter of his son. Heaton kept pigeons, and, having had some stolen, he fixed up inside the pigeon-house a spring-gun. His family were warned about it, but his son, aged 19, apparently forgot about the arrangement, went to the house one day, and was ehot. His injuries were so serious that he died the next day. The father felt his position most acutely and" seemed greatly distressed." . In this case, notwithstanding, the painful circumstances surrounding it; and the fact that the victim had been waimed pj!. what had "been done, and'met his dep,th while doing nothing' improper or illegal, the English judge,_ it will be seen, deemed it right and just to send, the broken-hearted father to. gaol, as a common criminal, for, six mdnth^i^