RICH AND POOR LAW.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume LVIII, Issue 69, 28 August 1926, Page 4

RICH AND POOR LAW.

Again we have had an example of the futility of the law which gives Magistrates the authority to prohibit the publication of the names of offenders brought before the Courts. A few days ago in Auckland a woman in a good social position was charged with shoplifting. Her counsel called it' "kleptomania" but the magistrate apparently ignored this extenuation for he sentenced her to a short term of imprisonment on one charge and placed her on probation on another. That can only be taken to mean that His Worship was of opinion that the woman had deliberately stolen, because had he thought that her fall was due to a mental lapse over which she had no control, he would surely not have imprisoned her. • Yet an order was made suppressing her name. This was done in order to spare the feelings of her family, but it must be said that in a number of other cases in which the offenders did not live in Remuera the feelings of the family were not considered. That the order was made solely because of the position held by the daughters of the accused woman is borne out by the remarks of the magistrate who said that names of offenders guilty of systematic shoplifting were never suppressed. However, owing to the positions held by accused's two daughters, he made the order for suppression. ' This sort of thing does a great deal to bring our system of dispensing justice into contempt, and those who say that there is one law for the rich and another for the poor are given some grounds for their arguments. The whole thing is now becoming a farce, and the sooner the law is amended in some way or other the better It is going to be for justice. At least .there should be some agreement between magistrates so ithat a regular principle could be laid down and followed, and in that proceedure social position should not be, taken into consideration. It seems to carry far too nmch weight at present.