WESTPORT MURDER CASE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11857, 22 May 1909, Page 5

WESTPORT MURDER CASE.

A DEPLORABLE BUSINESS. "A HOT SHOW." (Special to HeTald.) CHRISTCHURCH, this day. We may reasonably hope (says * the Lyttelton Times) that finality has beei. reached m the Wtetport murder case : with the exhaustive trial and conviction of Connolly ; but there are some aspect--6f the deplorable business that must stil, occupy the attention of the: Government. However anxious the authorities may In to hear the end of the matter, they cannot afford to ignore the plain lesions o tho case. If the administration of tin law on the West Coast had been m tlu hands of competent officers it would not have taken 12 months to ascertain tin. truth m. this matter. There Ls clearly plenty of Work for the police to do m VVestport. Indeed, the evidence m the trial, directly and inoielentally, threw i strange light upon the condition of society m the town. The townsfolk seem, tt have taken drunkenness and rioting a> a matter of course, and it is plain tliat they have no expectation of active inter vention on the part of tho. policei m tlit protection of person and property. No parfent would care to feend his son to uel\ if he believed that the young man \voulr fall into the sort of society m which Connolly seems to haveYmoved, or if fit. supposed that his earnings m port would he, spent m the' public .houses of such ;\ town ' as 'Westport. The polite super-' vision was obviously hix and careless, and the history of the ease shows that it was also characterised by stupidity and incompetency. We do not know whether the Department has been m the habit of drafting Yits inefficients to the West Coasti but design <ir accident cer taittly left Westport poorly protected, and it .is. perfectly clear that the town was m heed of particulai'lv active and courageous men:. No doubt the facts will* engage the 'attention of the Minister, and; Dr. Findlay himself will recognise that drastic informs are nece.«sa'ry.if confidence m the. Work of the police: and m the administration of the law is' to be restored so far as the West Coast is concerned. Last flight's Evening NeAvs s;iys: — The Westport .murder trial is now ~ovei\ and there can be little doubt that the cririie is sheeted home to the actual perpetrator. A mejttiful'jury reduced it to manslaughter, arid found sufficiently extenuating circumstances to justify ■ a strong recommendatioii for clemency to" the judge. His Honor' gaye effect to it by imposing a sentence of ten yearn' inir: prisonment, and here the ptiblic interest m Connolly ends.' The question is what steps tlie" Governmnt is going to take to clean up the police department on the West: Coast It ' is. ielclom that a trial reveal.s such an extraordinary amount : of bungling and incompetency on the part of ' the officials- entrusted with the maintenance" of lsw and order as.this remarkable ease has drine. The. coast has always enjoyed .a rejiutation of being ,a j fairly "hot show." • We lire inclined ,to [think that it has earrtfed it largely through the slackness of the ]K>liCß. Whethe/' ; this is > the, result- of a longstanding system *>f finding; jobs i For Government supportera, or whether the coast. has been made the dumping ground or ali ; the ihcapable.'s m the; force, we cannot say. Probably both causes have been at work to reach the-' - melancholy results discovered m tha Connolly trial. If the Government ,does- its duty some sweeping, changes should take place at no' distant dak v . ._