SIX MONTHS’ HARD LABOUR

Taranaki Daily News, 18 August 1933, Page 2

SIX MONTHS’ HARD LABOUR

SENTENCE ON FREDERICK COWLING RECEIVER OF STOLEN PROPERTY. Imprisonment for six months with hard labour was the punishment meted out to Frederick John Cowling when he appeared yesterday for sentence before Mr. Justice Ostler upon his conviction by a jury for having knowingly received stolen doors and window sashes about May 26, 1932, at Westown. Mr. A. A. Bennett urged on behalf, of Cowling that he was a married man aged about 50, living with his wife andchild on a farm of 50 acres at Westown. Counsel had been instructed that he was a hard-working man, a good husband and a good father. He had been in Taranaki many years and for some years had acted as ranger to the Taranaki Acclimatisation Society. Mr. Bennett said he: had had the advantage of seeing the report of the probation officer and to that he wished to add very little. It was pointed out that Cowling had been ready and willing to have his case disposed of in the lower court. The value of the property received was comparatively small, under £lO, and Cowling was a first offender. Counsel therefore asked the court to extend the prisoner the greatest possible clemency, and he suggested that the ends of 'justice might be adequately served by the infliction pf a fine, or an order for a term of probation. His Honour said the jury had taken a merciful view of the case by finding Cowling guilty of receiving property knowing' that it had been obtained dishonestly. His crime showed he was more or less a cunning person with criminal instincts, and his Honour in view of this did not think a term of probation would 'be justified in the public interest. However, he did not propose to inflict a savage kind of punishment. The sentence would be imprisonment with hard labour for six months. On the application of Mr. R. H. Quilliam (Crown Prosecutor) an order was made for the return of the doors to the superintendent of the "tate Advances Department