Licensing Law.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 8228, 8 June 1895, Page 3

Licensing Law.

PAID INFORMERS DENOUNCED. Judgment was given at Invercargill on Tuesday by two J ustices of the Peace in a case of sly grog selling, which had been proved by two paid informers. In giving judgment their Worships said: — The bench is distinctly of opinion that the balance of testimony goes to prove that a breach of the Licensing Act was committed ; but in recording a conviction the bench desires to make it clearly understood that it has no sympathy with the methods adopted by the prosecution in order to obtain a conviction. It was stated in evidence that the Iwoinformers were employed by the police with the express object of getting suspected persons convicted of breaches of the Licensing Act, and that any expenditure incurred by these degraded men in endeavouring to induce others to commit breaches of the law was recouped to them. It was also argued by the prosecution that such a course was perfectly legal. Whether that be so or not is no part of the duty of the bench to decide on the present occasion; but it may be remarked in passing that such an assertion is open to question, and that whether such a course be legal or not, it is at any rate a distinctly immoral act to endeavour to induce anybody to commit a breach of the law—an act which, if not already punishable by statute, ought at once to be made so. The Bench has no hesitation in saying that such a method of procedure is not only utterly demoralising to those immediately concerned, but that it is also degrading to the moral sense of the whole community, and that it were better far that no conviction for a breach of the Licensing Act should ever be obtained than that it should be secured by means such as have been described in the evidence in the case under consideration. It is difficult to understand under what circumstances, whether of choice or compulsion, the prosecution wanted to adopt the methods disclosed in the evidence given; unless it be that the informers exceeded their instructions, and such does not appear. It is true that there is a .section of the community (a small one, it is to be hoped), whose moral sense has become so degraded by the intensity of its prejudices that those who belong to it fail to perceive the enormity of such conduct, and are ready to approve of any means whatever being adopted in the endeavour to secure a conviction under the Licensing Act, But the Bench has no sympathy with such a morbid state of mind, and desires to place on record in the strongest possible manner its unqualified disapproval of the means adopted to secm-e a conviction in this case. To employ a detective to watch and report if a breach of the law is committed is perfectly legitimate, but to employ men to induce others to commit a breach of the law and then to inform upon them must be repugnant to every i-ight-minded and honourable man, and the sooner such a practice is abandoned the better for all concerned. At the same time the Bench cannot allow these feelings to blind it to the fact that in its opinion a breach of the Licensing Act has been committed, but in view of the very extraordinary circumstances disclosed by the evidence, and as a mark of the Bench’s strong disapproval of the methods by which a conviction has been obtained, a fine of only £1 will be inflicted, with costs 15s 3d.