THE DEATH PENALTY

Stratford Evening Post, Volume I, Issue 256, 7 October 1931, Page 5

THE DEATH PENALTY

ABOLITION BILL IN NEW SOUTH WALES ENDEAVOUR TO END A FARCE SYDNEY, Sept. 30. The farce of sentencing men to death when there is no chance of the penalty being exacted may shortly be ended by a bill to abolish the death' penalty, As a matter of policy the Government does not believe in hanging, yet the courts are tied by the existing law, and when a man has been found guilty of a capital offence a judge has no option but to go through the meaningless formula of imposing the death sentence.

This pantomime of pointing an unloaded pistol at a man's head was again enacted on Tuesday when Robert. Chrystal and Kenneth Farlow were sentenced to death for having shot Constable Ulrick "with intent to murder."

Though everybody realised that it was merely a matter of form, it was accompanied by the usual spectacle of screaming women, and it has led to a demand from within the Labour Party that the Government's policy should be definitely carried out. During the previous Lang Administration a bill to abolish the death penalty was thrown out by the Upper House, and the Administration of Justice Bill, also containing a clause to that effect, has been indefinitely shelved. It is known that there is a large body of opinion within the National Party in favour of the abolition of the death penalty, and a short bill to carry this into effect would probably meet with little opposition. During the term of this Government seven men have been sentenced to death, and in each case the sentences have been commuted, mostly to imprisonment for life. In tile case of the two young men, O'ilara and Bonham, who were found guilty of having shot a Chinese, the final sentence was as low as 15 years! The last man to be hanged in New South Wales was Williams, the Paddington child murderer, who was executed by the Fuller Government in

Twenty-Mile Walk Contrasting with the usual appearance ol' the Magistrate's Court four lurbanned Indians made their appearance in Wauganui yesterday morning as witnesses for one of their countryman who was acting as plaintiff in a case against another Indian. Plaintiff won his case, and in assessing the costs of the witnesses Mv. -1. H. Salmon asked whether the natives had come to town by car, and if so whether they required travelling expenses. Counsel (Mr. P. .1. Pdake) asked the interpreter how the witnesses had travelled and received the answer that I hey had walked to Wa« nganui from Kakalahi in order to save the expense of a bus ride, "In that case 1 think they arc deserving of every .consideration." said Mr. Salmon. Me allowed them 10s for their journey in.